2028ndgrads: April 2007

Hi all,

It has been quite a time since we last posted. Please note that there are NEW Pictures AND Videos below this post. Okay, so now I doubt anyone is left reading this, so I will be brief on what has been going on in the lives of Lily and Addison (and their parents). The first major advance was Lily and Addison learning how to crawl. Unfortunately for Addison, she learned how to crawl backwards and that was her only direction for the first week and a half of mobility. This would cause her untold anger as she wished to go towards something only to end up farther away (as a casual observer, it was very funny). You can see this backwards crawling if you look closely at the first of the new videos. She did learn to progress forward and has become much faster than her sister. As you see, Teresa and I have begun racing them, though as you will see in the videos, Jack is still faster than either of them.

After crawling, came the standing up. They have taken to standing most of the time. Poor Addison, she has not quite mastered the art of dismount. She comes crashing down or just stands there crying for fear of crashing down. Lily has been standing longer and has a very delicate dismount to the sitting position. This can be viewed on one of the videos as well. Other cool things they can do now includes clapping and waving, both evident on the videos.

We went for our 9-month visit to the pediatrician (at 9 1/2 months). All was well, but Teresa asked about Lily and Addison's sleeping patterns. Lily was a disaster to get to sleep. At times it would take up to 45 minutes to get her down, causing both parents untold stress. Addison, on the other hand, was quite good at going to sleep, but would wake up at some ungodly hour of the night (2, 3 4, pick one, it was never the same). So Dr. Regan sternly began talking to Teresa about putting them down, going back after 10 minutes, if still not asleep, going back after 20 minutes, etc. Teresa, quickly interrupted Dr. Regan, pointing at me, saying "Talk to that guy, he is the one who needs to hear this..." So, Dad the softee, got a beat-down from the pediatrician. We followed her advice and sleeping for both has been great, though the first night sucked.

Lily had her surgery to repair her cleft palate. All went perfectly. The night in the hospital with Lily was aweful and the next week was almost as bad. Eventually, she began drinking from a bottle again, and all has been clear sailing since then. When Lily came out of surgery she looked like she just lost a bar fight (swollen lips, blood coming from her nose and mouth). Every 4 hours she could have pain medication, and it was easy to figure out when the 4 hours was about up. Once we got Lily asleep, a nurse would come in and wake her. She had to be in arm restraints for three weeks, though once we got out of the hospital, Gram and Teresa came up with much better alternatives that allowed Lily to sleep easier. I could go on about how bad the hospital stay and first week really was, but there is no need. On the bright side, we got a chance to have Gram (Teresa's mom) and Grandma (Mike's mom) stay for a week each.

The girls are now into breaking stuff, including themselves. Their fascination with the dogs waterbowl is lots of fun...not really (see video). We can cancel the Father of the Year awards. I was in charge of Addison one afternoon, when I fell asleep on the floor. Addison broke free from our gate and decided to crawl down the steps, not sure how many she was able to crawl down before she began tumbling, but I was awoken to thud, thud, thud...Addison was fine, Teresa was about to sell me to the gypsies (strike that, banish me to the gypsies). A few days later Lily was about to take a similar tumble, but we caught her just before the edge. I have learned to keep the gate at the top of the stairs closed for fear of being deported.

Enough words from me (okay, this was longer than it should have been) . Enjoy the pictures and videos below.