Christmas, Sweet Potatoes, and It Takes 2

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. We had a very quiet Christmas at home. Addison and Lily had plenty of gifts to open courtesy of Aunt Kathleen, Uncle Jay, Regan, Marshall, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Karin, Leah and Joanna. Not too surprising they really weren't into the whole unwrapping presents thing. But the wads of wrapping paper did peek some interest.

We plan to have a quiet New Year's as well. Mike and I plan to toast the New Year from bed hopefully with 2 peacefully sleeping babies. And, of course, we'll be cheering the Irish come January 2nd.

Here's a couple of videos. One from Christmas Day. One with Lily's experience with sweet potatoes and some fun Mike had with the twins.

Video of scenes from our Georgia trip

You're going to do WHAT?!

Basically this is the reaction Mike received when he relayed our Christmas holiday plans to his colleagues. You see, as a professor in a University on the quarter system, Mike's fall quarter ends before Thanksgiving and he returns to teaching after the New Year. That provides him ample opportunity to do research and provides us with the flexibility to travel. Of course the holidays are the time to be with family and we feel compelled to be with ours. So our plan was to drive to Forsyth, GA to spend time with my parents. Unfortunately from Athens it is a 10 hour drive. Whew! With 2 babies that is quite a feat but not impossible. But wait...we'll also be taking our 3 dogs. Yep we loaded up the whole clan and headed south. The 10 hour drive took more like 12 hours, but we managed to only have about 1 1/2 hours of screaming babies in that whole 24 hour period. Not a bad percentage, but it is still 1 1/2 hours of screaming babies.

And wait...there is still more. Once we returned from Georgia we planned to drive to Washington, DC to spend the Christmas weekend with Mike's folks. Once again with 2 babies and 3 dogs. Unfortunately those plans fell through so the 7 of us will be spending a quiet Christmas at home.

Here are some pictures from our time in Georgia:

Solid food and other tidbits

Denuen update and fun with Jack

We spent the day yesterday in Columbus. It just so happened that our friend Susan Taylor needed a ride to the airport so she joined us. We did a little shopping dropped Susan off and picked Denuen up. Denuen's surgery went well. The doctors found that the mass did not look like what they expected and they thought rather than a cancerous tumor it may be scar tissue from a ruptured anal gland. Never thought I'd be hoping one of my dogs would have a ruptured anal gland...we'll get a call middle of next week to let us know the results of the biopsy. Meanwhile Denuen is on antibiotics and pain meds and resting comfortably on the couch.

This evening Mike, Lily and Addison had a "moment" playing with Jack:

Update on Denuen

On Monday Mike took Denuen to OSU Veterinary School Hospital. The doctors there diagnosed Denuen's anal gland problem as a tumor (anal sac adenocarcinoma). It is apparently a fairly common type of cancer that older female dogs are prone to. Unfortunately this type of tumor is also highly malignant. To determine a course of action, the doctors did a chest x-ray and an ultrasound of Denuen's internal organs. Fortunately they did not see any indication that the cancer had spread to those organs. This type of tumor also produces a chemical that causes the dog's body to have more Calcium in their system. They checked her current calcium level and while it is a bit elevated it is not extremely so.

Because of these findings the doctors suggested we proceed with surgery to remove the tumor. They assured us that the surgery is not likely to cause fecal incontinence (the last thing anyone would want!). The surgery was scheduled for yesterday afternoon, but late in the day we received a call that they had lots of emergencies yesterday and Denuen's surgery has been postponed until Thursday. I believe they must do evaluations on Mondays and Wednesdays and surgeries on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The doctors at OSU also confirmed that Denuen has a torn ligament in her left rear leg which will need surgery. However the tumor is the more pressing issue. After the surgery on her tumor, the tumor will be biopsied so we'll have more information on the extent of the spread, where she is likely to have the cancer pop up in the future, and what kind of monitoring of her we'll need to do. Based on their findings in the x-rays and ultrasound the doctor indicated we are likely to see the cancer pop up in her lymph nodes but fortunately this type of cancer doesn't tend to cause a lot of damage in the lymph nodes or spread from there. Basically he said Denuen is very likely to have several more years of quality life. At 11 years old several more years of quality life is a gift.

Back by popular demand

Yesterday I mentioned to my mom that I had recorded Addison and Lily in the exersaucer to show the differences in their energy levels. This morning I received an email from my sister asking when it was going to be available on the blog. Have we started a new craze across the country? Well, it is fun and fairly easy to get these videos out here, so here's our next installment. Make sure you have the sound turned up on your computer for the commentary. Oh and I figured out how to put transitions in our clips...

Starting the Christmas season

It is the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas is suddenly upon us. Many of our neighbors already have decorations up to light the night. We plan to put up decorations tomorrow and we'll be getting a tree soon. A big part of the holidays is sending cards to loved ones and we are thrilled to have 2 beautiful subjects to picture in our cards this year. We spent a bit of time doing a photo session in our living room. We felt we had several good shots. Here are some that we did not choose to use for our card:

I posted a few days ago that Lily was rolling over...back to tummy. At that time Addison was showing no interest in doing the same. Well, that is still the case. However Addison has now learned to roll from her tummy to her back. I guess it is safe to say that Lily prefers laying on her tummy and Addison prefers her back! Here's a video catching the two of them in action.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello all.

We have exciting news to share. Lily is rolling over from her back to her tummy. She has been doing this for about a week now. She's been doing belly scrunches...lifting her legs and moving around quite a bit in her crib for a while now and turning to sleep on her side. Finally she made it all the way over. Addison can do the belly scrunches and moves around a bit in the crib, but she seems pretty content to just stay on her back.

Addison had a big trip this past weekend. I went to Atlanta for planning meetings with ScreamFree and Addison went with. This meant driving to Columbus to fly to Atlanta and all of the packing, stuff lugging and security screenings that go with travelling with an infant. I must say the TSA folks in the Columbus airport were WONDERFUL. And there were also TSA folks in Atlanta...enough said. We also had more public nursing of an infant and even breast pumping than I would have ever thought I'd be comfortable with, but you do what you have to do. We left Lily and Mike with about 1/2 of her need in frozen breastmilk and returned with enough to restock the freezer. Mike will have to relay his experience as a true single parent. Suffice to say the stories told to me involved low grade fevers and ear piercing screams. But he did keep his promise to me and upon my return I found my daughter still alive.

Both of the girls are over 13 pounds now. Hard to believe they will be 5 months old next week.

Next week Mike is taking our 11 year old coonhound, Denuen, up to Columbus to the Ohio State University Veterinary School to have surgery on her anal glands...they've gotten severely impacted and have to be removed. She also has probably torn a ligament in her left rear knee and we anticipate that surgical repair to happen then too. Fortunately we feel a bit more comfortable with handling 2 infants so throwing in a convalescencing dog into the mix won't be too much of a stretch.

We bought a digital camcorder as our Christmas gift to ourselves. Here's our first attempt:

It's the Great Pumpkins, Charlie Brown

Our first Halloween. Of course, Lily and Addison wore the prescribed pumpkin outfits courtesy of Dave and Dorothy Markert. It was a rainy night in Athens, OH that night, but we had plenty of trick or treaters. To avoid having the door bell ring incessantly and the dogs scaring the trick or treaters, we opened our garage and sat there and handed out candy. Addison and Lily seemed pretty oblivious, but Mike and I were proud to be able to show off our little girls. We had plenty of oh-ing and ah-ing over the twins and their cute outfits.

Last week Addison and Lily had their 4 month check up and shots. All was well at the doctor's and they did well with their shots. This time, Mike stayed out in the waiting area while I took each of the girls back for their shots. He's much more sensitive to having them get those mean old shots that make them cry. They both did better with this round of shots. They were fussier that day, but did not run a fever.


Developmentally...Addison is weighing a little over 12 lbs. Lily is weighing about 12 1/2 lbs. But when you pick them up, you'd swear there is a 2 lb difference! Both girls are holding their heads up well when on their tummy, but Lily is much more comfortable in that position and gladly will hold her head really high for several minutes. They are not rolling over yet, but we hope to see that feat in the next few weeks. Lily loves putting her fingers in her mouth and almost prefers them to her pacifier. Addison is just getting to the point of realizing the joy of slimy fingers. While both girls are smiling and laughing, Lily has a special gift of squealing with laughter. Addison has become quite the talker...and loud. Quite often she wakes up and talks loudly into the monitor for several minutes before realizing...hey, I'm hungry. Both girls are wearing 3-6 month clothes. They've finally outgrown all of their 0-3 month outfits.

Godzilla v. Ultraman

16 weeks have come and gone. It is now quite OK for Mike to go off to work for 8 hours. Heck I've even gone off and left Mike for a couple of hours. Just over a week ago we left Addison and Lily with my mom and our ever helpful neighbor Kay. And, yes, we went and played golf. Granted the weather wasn't great...windy and cold...but it was golf.

This week we started having babysitters come to the house 2 times a week. They are OU college students who are majoring in Early Childhood Education. Both Katie and Brianna are wonderful with the girls. So far Mike has definitely been able to get lots of work done while they are here. I'm still getting the hang of letting go, but did have some time to focus on work. Tomorrow night we are planning to go to a party in the neighborhood for a bit while Katie watches the girls. We'll see how that plan pans out.

This week Lily passed the 12lb mark...as of Monday she weighed 12lb 2oz. Addison weighed 11lb 9 1/2oz. Both girls are growing beautifully.

October 8 Lily and Addison were baptized at Athens First United Methodist Church. Lily's god parents are my sister Kathleen Wallace and Mike's brother Matt Meyer. Addison's god parents are our dear friends from Notre Dame, Sara Harty and Steve Wenc. We were blessed to have my parents (Gram and Pop) and Mike's parents (Grandma and Grandpa), Mike's sister Bridget, and my grandmother present at the ceremony. That weekend Lily and Addison also went to their first college football game and saw OU beat Western Michigan.

Lily has been building up her muscles quite nicely. She's been holding her head 90 degrees on her tummy for a couple weeks. Addison is just catching up to her in that department. Both girls enjoy standing. Lily has found the joy of laughter. Every time she laughs, Mike and I just burst out ourselves...then eventually we end up making her cry cause she doesn't understand why we are laughing so hard. Addison continues to smile and coo and I believe she's realized she needs to turn up the volume to keep up with her sister. Addison also enjoys singing (fortunately she does not appear to be taking after her Pop in her singing skills).

Tonight we had a fun family night. The four of us sat on the floor playing. Eventually, Mike and I were sitting facing each other and we had the girls in our laps facing one another as well. We had a great time having them play pat-a-cake together, making them hug one another, and generally seeing them interact. We laughed and laughed when we held up the girls while they stood and we slowly "walked" them towards one another. Lily was Godzilla and Addison was Ultraman. Mike and I provided the audio portion of our entertainment. It is these types of moments that make it more fun to have two.

Three Months...seems like we have been doing this longer

Well, here we are. Three months. The girls are smiling and being reasonably interactive. They seem very close to actually recognizing eachother. And they are sleeping through the night. What more could a dad ask for? That is right, I am finally making a post.

Here are some of my insights and highlights of the first three months. First, there are some things that I think are funny every time that others who live in our house might not feel are so great. For example, it is funny every time when I get Addison to latch onto my nose. I don't care who you are, but it is funny when you hear a big fart over the baby monitor. It is also funny when a baby poops and/or pees on someone else. No so funny when it is you in the cross-hairs, but very funny when it is someone else.

Who made up the term "fussy?" Before I knew, my impression of fussy was squirmy. No, not even close. Fussy means "irrational screaming at full volume for extended periods of time and there is NOTHING you can do about it." Seems like this knowledge should have been in one of those damn books I read or one of our friends with kids could have given us (me) the heads up. It makes much more sense now when people would find out that we were having twins and would say with a smirk "good luck, you will need it." It also explains why they would not let me leave Children's Hospital with Lily until I had seen the "Don't Shake the Baby" video.

The girls and the dogs seem to be getting along quite well. The dogs will, on occassion give the girls a quick lick on the face, then move on to their primary task of sleeping. Jack desparately would like the girls to play with him. He keeps bringing his toys to the girls expecting some sort of response. In Teresa's last post there is a picture of Jack waiting for Lily to play with him.

If anyone had any doubts, Teresa is an amazing mother. There is a vast difference between what she has been able to teach them and what I have done. It reminds me of when she came down to New Orleans when we were dating. I had to go to Houston for my nephews' high school graduation and she was dog-sitting Jack. Before I left, Jack had no skills other than he liked to play with toys. When I got back after two days of Teresa training, Jack could sit on command, do calculus and clean the pool. So it is not surprising that Teresa has been able to get both girls smiling, sleeping through the night, and playing on their own. My skill is putting them in the bouncy seat and force feeding Lily. I am sure one day when I get home from work there will be integrated polynomials written in crayon on the floor.

Lastly, during the first half of the Michigan State game, after another pathetic throw by Brady Quinn to an open spot of dirt, I yelled, and scared Lily. Thus, I was banned from watching the game and feeding Lily at the same time (thank goodness for TIVO). In any event, as much trouble as I got in, it was no where near as much trouble as this ND dad got from his wife (Link to the story).

Tomorrow has come and gone

Teresa here again. Funny thing about saying you'll get to something tomorrow...Lily can always through a wrench in your plans. Mike, the loving father, was tending to his daughter from mid-evening to late evening last night and was unable to find the time and energy to post here on the blog. Unlike me, he wants to make sure his posts are a) coherent and b) funny. And tonight is no better. Mike is currently (11:45pm) upstairs putting Lily to sleep. I can tell over the baby monitor that he has been successful...not a peep out of Lily in a while...all I can hear is Mike snoring!

One very positive result of Lily's fussines last night...she slept for 9 hours.

So here are some pictures.

4 generations of Wright women	Our happy family
Lily expresses her opinion of Georgia Tech	Lily's feelings towards Notre Dame
Jean, Lottie and Addison	Jon with the 2 cutest girls in the world
The girls meet their Great-Uncle Mike	Difficult to tell in this picture, but Jack has placed his ball next to Lily in the bouncy seat. "Time to play, Lily!"
Pop and Gram	Aunt Kim and Uncle Bee-ul

Trippin'

It has been such a long time since we've/I've had a chance to post. Life with twins, I guess.

So over the last 2 1/2 weeks...

Addison and Lily had their 2 month immunizations and 2 month well-child check at the pediatrician. Despite all of the dire warnings of problems that can arise with the DTaP shots, the girls did well (Mom and Dad had to endure having their children stuck though). Both had low grade fevers and were rather fatigued for a day. We were told we do have well-children. Lily weighed 9lbs 5oz and Addison 9lbs 2oz.

We, the 4 of us, drove to Atlanta for Teresa to attend planning meetings at ScreamFree. We drove to Charlotte, NC and stayed the night at a hotel. Kind of scary, but the girls did great with minimal crying in the car and at the hotel. While in Atlanta we were fortunate to see and meet the entire ScreamFree family. We also saw Aunt Teresa, Keller and Erin. Shirley and John Riggins stopped in to meet the girls. Jon and Tasha Kaplan put us up at their place and Gram came up to Atlanta to help Mike with child care during the days when I was working.

Over Labor Day weekend we spent time in Forsyth so Pop and Grandmama were able to see and meet the girls. Uncle Billy and Aunt Kim drove down to Forsyth to meet their newest nieces and to bring another much appreciated load of hand-me-downs. Unfortunately Coleman was visiting her other grandparents, so the 3 newest grandchildren will have to wait for another time to meet. We also saw Uncle Mike Sheppard and Susan Rice who stopped in on their way to the ND/Georgia Tech game. Speaking of which, Gram was kind enough to let Mike use her precious ticket for that game so Mike was able to see ND in the season opener...and fortunately win.

Our friends Sue and Dave Welch and Jean and Chris Landmesser made the trek over to the Kaplans on Sunday. So Addison and Lily were able to meet them and their respective children. (Congrats by the way to Jean and Chris who are expecting their 2nd child next March).

We once again stayed the night in Charlotte on the way back home. We were fortunate enough to hook up with Jim and Amy Burger so we stopped by their lovely home and met Ellie and Daniel. Mike was very happy to have some of Ellie's birthday cake.

All in all the trip was wonderful. As you can tell we were able to see lots friends and family. Addison and Lily received lots of hugs and gifts. And Mike and I were able to eat several meals without attempting to also hold a child. The most difficult thing about the trip...packing the car. It required 2 1/2 hours to pack the car for a 5 day trip. And the Suburban was truly packed. Somewhere around 2 hours of packing up, I (holding Addison) turned to Mike (holding Lily) and said "This is really hard." Finally we wised up and put the girls in our front carriers so we could continue packing hands free. And despite 2 1/2 hours of packing and filling the car to the brim, we still had to stop at Babys R Us to get things we forgot!

Back in Athens, Mike started back to work. This means that I am alone with the girls for 7+ hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. So far I've survived 2 such days. Luckily the girls have been very cooperative and the time goes quickly. The worst part is trying to nurse Addison while bottle feeding Lily who requires frequent burping. I'm sure we all look quite comical at times.

We've all survived 10 plus weeks of babyhood. Lily and Addison are starting to sleep longer periods at night, but we are still operating at an extreme sleep deficit. An example of this...the other night I fell asleep while pumping. Bear in mind it was 5am. But there I sat with my double pump machine and while holding the collection bottles, I fell asleep. And not just nodded off...I was out for a good 30 minutes. Luckily I did myself no bodily harm. And I collected lots of milk.

We've been working with Lily on falling asleep on her own. Addison is really good at this...need I tell you who has been putting which baby down to sleep? For the most part we can put Lily down in her crib and she'll eventually fall asleep. Usually she has to talk and whine a bit. This afternoon, I was going through the exercise of put her down, leave, go back in a few minutes to tell her it was time to close her eyes, etc. One time after listening to her talk and whine a bit over the monitor for a few minutes, I went back up to try and settle her back down. I walked into the room and peeked over the crib. Lily saw me and gave me a HUGE grin. At that moment she could have asked me for anything and it would be hers. What a beautiful moment. But alas she still didn't go off to sleep.

This morning we weighed Addison and Lily and they weighed 10lbs and 10lbs 5oz respectively at 10 weeks 5 days of age. They both are smiling and laughing. Holding their heads up some. Trying to launch themselves off our laps by pushing off with their legs. Babbering at times. Talking to the fish and whale on their bouncy seats and swing. They've graduated to size 1 diapers and have outgrown many outfits.

Mike promises tomorrow he'll post a funny message and pictures. Something I'm sure you don't want to miss.

Learning the secret handshake

When we first moved to Athens, we were amazed at what a friendly place Athens and our neighborhood is. Our neighbors brought us gifts and had us over for parties within the first week of being here. And everyone introduced themselves and made us feel welcome.

Then we met this one neighbor. Nice enough. We exchanged introductions, then his next question "Do you have children?" We replied, "No." And that was the end of the conversation. We felt a smidge put off, but heck it was just one person and even he was nice enough, just let us know we weren't going to be close.

The last 9 days or so we've been taking the girls out for a walk between their 6pm and 9pm feeding. We walk anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours around the neighborhood with the girls in front carriers. The girls love it and it is good exercise for Mike and me. Since we are out and about more we've been seeing lots of neighbors. We realize newborns are irresistable. You get 2 at once an your are suddenly a complete novelty that everyone must witness. Suddenly folks who we've seen occasionally make a special point to stop and chat us up. And the guy who wouldn't give us, the childless ones, the time of day 1 1/2 years ago. "OH, IT'S THE TWINS!" was his and his wife's exclamations.

So Mike and I realize now, we are officially in the parents club and membership has its priveleges.

On a growth note....Lily 8lb12oz, Addison 8lb11oz

A week on our own

All is well here in Athens. The girls had their Monday morning weigh in. Lily weighs 8 lbs 5 1/2 oz. Addison weighs 8 lbs 2 1/2 oz.

We've been walking with the girls each day for the past 5 days. The weather in Athens has been quite good...highs in the 80s with relatively low humidity. We've been walking them around 7:30p or 8:00p. We had been fighting the girls at that time to take their last nap of the day...they'd cry forever and we'd stress. Finally we wised up and decided to walk them at that time instead of stress. We were quite happy when Lily reached the 8lb mark and could be carried in the Baby Bjorn. Generally the girls are very happy for their 1 to 1 1/2 hour walk. Lily was not so happy towards the end of the walk last night when she'd had a giant poop. Oh, well we can only ask for so much.

Regan and Addison	Kathleen and Lily
Addison floating during her bath	Kathleen and Addison hanging out on the deck
Kathleen and the girls	Kathleen and Regan and the girls
Addison donning her new hat	Hanging out in the pack n play
No idea what Addison is thinking here

Going it alone

So Sunday we bid farewell to the luxury of having extra hands around the house. Kathleen and Regan returned to Dallas after a much appreciated week of help with Lily and Addison.

After dropping Kathleen and Regan at the Columbus airport, the 4 of us went to Babies R Us and bought out the store. Who knew we'd need 3 Diaper Genies? It was a pleasant experience (i.e. no crying although Mike thought about breaking down when he saw the register total!). The 1 1/2 hour drive back to Athens was uneventful. Both girls had bottles on the way and were quite content.

And when we arrived home...Mike and I were on our own. It was a scary thought, but we felt we were up to it. Plenty of other people have survived raising twins. But still scary. We settled in with a little PGA golf on the TV. The girls ate and went to sleep. Then we had a small electrical storm and, as we have come to expect, the electricity went out. Fortunately we had a small battery generator doodad that we could use for the breast pump. And although our electricity goes out frequently, it usually is restored fairly quickly. But really...our first night on our own...do we really need to be without lights?

After about an hour of sitting staring at each other, I realized our neighbor across the street had power. Unusual. Shortly thereafter we went out for a walk with the girls and ran into another near-by neighbor. They also had power. Very suspicious. Mike thought...hmm...the empty lot next to our house was just mowed...maybe the guy mowing ran over the box where our power supply comes in. We looked about at the other houses around us and all had electricity. Closer inspection showed that sure enough the box had been hit and the wires were severed. Unfortunately we were quite sure a single house is less likely to get immediate restoration of electrical service. So wouldn't you know it...not only were we without power on our first night of being alone...but our house was the only one. Comical really.

It ends up that the power company finally arrived on the scene around 10:15 and the power was restored around 10:45. Lily and Addison appear not to have been scarred for life by the experience. And Mike and I are recovering.

5 weeks and counting

We've survived 5 weeks. Fortunately we've had great help in adapting to the new life with 2 babies...Gram for the first 3 1/2 weeks, Grandma for 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 and now Aunt Kathleen and Cousin Reagan for 4 1/2 - 5 1/2. And what happens at 5 1/2? "Game on!" as they say.

Just as a note on growth...On Monday Addison weighed 6lbs 15 1/2oz. Lily weighed 7lbs 8oz.

Since we've been having the babies sleep on their backs...prevent SIDS...and I've always heard about "tummy time" and how important that is, I decided to research when one should start their baby on tummy time. So I found a document posted by the American Pediatricians and it said "From the first day you return from the hospital you should start your baby with tummy time 2 or 3 times a day." Oops. They are scarred for life yet again. Needless to say, we had tummy time during the babies' next wakeful period.

Here are some recent photos.

Grandma and the girls	Addison strikes a cute pose while sleeping on Aunt Kathleen
	Lily - "This is my idea of activity time"
Looks like the dogs (this is Peoopee) are OK with the babies now	Peoopee keeping a watchful eye over the girls during tummy time
Tummy time