Jump On Lion

I saw this cute lion pillow (it's sort of like a mini bean bag) at Target the other day and thought the boys would like it. We have a similar frog pillow that's smaller and they love to jump on it and roll around. The neat thing about this pillow is that the outside cover unzips and can be washed! I also got a few buckets for them to play with; you can see how appreciative Oliver is in the picture below as he lays down hugging both the lion and his buckets! I love the last picture of Owen sprawled out on the floor with the Lion pillow and a bag of balls - he's thinking, "Life doesn't get any better than this..." in that moment!

54 lbs of West Boys

Today Megan, Katie and I took all three boys to the pediatrician for their well visits.  The twins 15 month appointment overlapped with Spencer's 2 month appointment, so the doctor allowed us to bring all of them in at once.  This turned out to be a task that would have been near impossible without three adults!  Especially because they all had to get two or more shots...there was a lot of screaming and crying coming from the room we were in.  The part I didn't expect - was all of the screaming and tears during the initial weighing and laying down on the table to get measured for height.  The big boys were absolutely terrified!!  Up until this visit it has never been a problem, but the doctor told us that they see this behavior very often starting at 15 months.  I don't think they've ever screamed and fought so hard in their lives!  Spencer was a piece of cake - he smiled and cooed through the whole exam (until the shots).

Today's weights: Owen 22 lbs, Oliver 21 lbs, Spencer 11 lbs

It was a good thing we brought snacks to try and calm the crying somewhat while the doctor took turns examining each boy.  They ate almost the entire can of puffs Oliver is holding in the picture below.  Notice he is at the window saying his usual line of "outside, outside".  Although this time, he really really wanted to get outside and fast!  Below that is a picture of them after the nurse came in with her cocktail plate of shots. They ran over to the corner, and Oliver hid behind Owen.

One other interesting thing - this was the first time the boys noticed and pointed to the toy / gum ball machine in the top picture.  Luckily we were called in quickly and they didn't have time to get down and check it out.  Every time I've been to the office before today I always see a bunch of kids grabbing and slobbering all over that thing, and thought to myself "I hope my kids aren't going to be like that."  Ha!  I have a feeling I might not win on that one.

My Little Linus

Oliver has been so funny lately about his blankies.  And not just his favorite baby blankie, but every soft one he can get his hands on around the house - he loves them all!  He wanted one to have while playing on the deck, so I gave him a rather large (but soft) blue blanket that I wasn't all that fond of for use in their cribs.  The thing that cracks me up is that he likes to run around with it, then suddenly plop down on the ground, bury his head on it, and roll around.  This appears comfortable when he takes head dives into the blankets in his crib, but not so much on the deck outside!        

Super SAHM!

This post can double as an official celebration of my becoming a SAHM (stay at home mom)!!  When we last visited Krystal, she let me try out her double baby carrier.  We were joking about the picture below, where I'm effortlessly carrying all 3 babies, that I was lacking a super mom cape.  Did I mention that she designed and made, and now has a patent pending on this carrier?! (she's the queen of super moms).  I have an Ergo, and in comparison her carrier was equally as ergonomic, more comfortable, and best of all...made for two!  Seriously, I felt like I could go for a little jog wearing the twins in this thing.

PS - ignore my face in these pictures.  That is what a super mom with 15 month old twins and an 8 week old baby looks like.  If only I could get some sleep...(sigh)

Fun with Grandpa

This Friday my dad came down to help out with the boys while Ryan is still traveling for work and the nannies had the weekend off.  The boys had lots of fun fighting for turns to play "upside down" and to wear bandannas around their heads. They also tried watermelon and pineapple for the first time. Oliver loved both of course, while Owen made faces at the watermelon. My dad always makes a scrambled egg for Oliver and he ate the whole thing in addition to his normal breakfast three days in a row! We tried to give Owen some of the eggs, but he cried and spit them out as usual...until he tried my dad's famous spicy eggs!! Saturday morning after their nap my dad made a second round of eggs for our breakfast. We were eating them in the playroom and the boys came running over like vultures trying to see and taste what we had on our plates. I gave Owen a small bite assuming that he'd make a face at it and leave our food alone. But he proved me wrong and ate several bites of the spicy eggs and liked them! I guess the plain kind were too bland for him. Who would have guessed?!

Playing House...With a Real Baby

These are some of my favorite pictures of baby Spencer...he looks so big, "sitting" up in that stroller, but look closely, that's actually a very tiny umbrella stroller, for a baby doll!  Jocelyn was more than happy to let us temporarily replace her baby doll with a real baby and take him for a little stroll around the yard!  Her brother Jakob wanted to get in on the fun too!

Wait a second...he's our baby!!

See, I like to touch his head, and he doesn't mind.

Splish Splash - 15 Months!

The twins turned15 months old yesterday!  They are sweet, happy, curious, spirited little boys :)  I noticed yesterday afternoon, as Owen "escaped" through an open baby gate, that they have become hard to catch when they start running off on their own.  And forget it if both get loose and start heading in different directions!  They love a game of chase, and especially chasing each other.

As we got ready for bed yesterday, they were very excited during bath time - with lots of splashing in the tub.  It was tons of fun - myself and the bathroom floor were covered in water afterward!

A Real Mower

More on lawn mowers...  Today we were playing on the deck when the lawn service came by.  It was the first time the boys had seen the big, loud mowers up close and were really interested in finding out what they were all about.  They were a little hesitant to get too close to the rail at first, but quickly made their way over and just watched in fascination.  I think they like anything that has a motor and makes noise.  Oliver spends a good part of his day walking around with his toy cars, trucks, and trains saying "brrrrm, brrrrm, brrrrm".

Playgroup

This past Friday we attended our first twins playgroup and had tons of fun!  There were lots of fun new toys for the boys to explore.  We will definitely be getting a "ball pit" very soon - it is such a great idea and they loved playing with all the colorful balls.  I've already found where you can buy the balls in bulk on Amazon, now I just need to decide what to contain them in - inflatable baby pool, tent, sandbox, etc...  Another toy they really liked was the play lawn mower.  And we have plenty of lawn for them to practice mowing!

New Sippy

Strange thing - the boys love drinking water with their lunch, snacks, and dinner from sippy cups, but when it comes to milk they still prefer to drink it from a bottle. I know, I know, we're a bit behind on this milestone (dropping bottles all together), and nobody would like that more than me...but with baby Spencer and all the craziness right now, we've stuck with what is easiest and most comfortable for the twins. And it's only 2 times per day - when they first wake up and when they go to bed - that they get a bottle of milk.

So anyway, I've been experimenting with different brands of sippy cups that might entice them to like drinking even more - mainly cups with straws. I bought a set of two, but only filled one and handed it to the first baby to come over (Oliver) just to see how things went. Well, Owen was not pleased with this!! He immediately started crying because he did not have a new straw sippy of his own. After seeing that I wasn't going to take it away from Oliver and give it to him (that would have caused even more melting down), he decided to try and steal it for himself! I'm still learning some things are just unavoidable and must be done in two's in order to keep the peace :)

"Mama - you're not going to do anything about this?!?"

Some relief as Wesley passes by...

Oliver even insisted he take his new cup on our wagon ride later on...

Best Brother

Aunt Brandi has great taste and always picks out the cutest clothes as gifts for the boys.  This matching outfit sent for all three when Spencer was born is my favorite!  It has a little green and blue dinosaur patch on the chest that says "Best Brother".  The big boys really love their baby brother.  It's pretty cute - when we ask where baby Spencer is, they immediately point to him and smile.  Owen gets especially giddy when he's allowed to play near Spencer on the floor.  Oliver is still a little too eager to grab and poke at his face and requires close supervision, but he's getting better.  

Go Team West!!!

Stick with me baby brother...

Daredevil Owen

Owen loves this...listen to the squeals of joy!

Reston Zoo

Last Saturday Ryan and I took all 3 boys to the Reston Zoo.  It was the first time any of us had ever been there, even though we've lived within a couple miles of the place for the past 5 years!  I was surprised by how many more animals it had than the view from the road provides.  I was also surprised by how "dangerous" the free wagon ride could potentially be...I guess it's more of an "at your own risk" type thing, but they don't warn you.  Basically you crowd onto this open air wagon and a tractor pulls you around a big loop making several stops where animals swarm the wagon expecting to be fed by the people and their buckets of animal feed.  I think we were the only ones who didn't have our feed bucket with us on the wagon (it was left behind in the stroller), but that was more than ok since we had our hands full with the boys, and there was nothing stopping these ravenous animals from coming face to face with us anyway!

The speed with which the large animals ran over to the wagon at the first stop startled most of the little kids...causing some of them to scream, which in turn made Oliver nervous and he started crying a little bit.  Luckily, I had some puffs in my bag and that calmed him down!  But seriously, I was busy focusing most of my attention and energy on keeping Spencer from getting poked by those huge antlers!

After the wagon ride, we walked around and used our feed bucket on some of the other animals.  The boys weren't really interested in the llamas, even though they were leaning over and eating right in Owen's face!  After a couple minutes, Oliver decided he wanted to pet the llama.  It was cute, but he was getting his fingers a little too close to the llama's hungry mouth...so we moved him away!

A few other animals we saw...Owen especially liked the pigs, since he's been practicing his piggy face and noises lately.  And he also pointed and got excited when he saw the little lamb being fed a bottle - I think he wanted some of that bottle too!