Happy(?) 5 Month Birthday!

The girls with their ears pierced.

If they appear "off center" it's because I haven't tightened the earrings yet.

(Grace on left, Frances on right)

Okay, so I'm posting a day early... tomorrow will be the girls' 5 month birthday, woohoo!

Today Auntie Amy and I took the girls to the Piercing Pagoda at the mall. The lady said most babies cry for a few seconds and then forget all about it (like with shots). Well, Grace went first. Auntie Amy held her since I was nervous. We figured she could pass her off to me for consoling while they did Frances. They had both ears pierced at the same time (thank GOD!). Well Grace is screaming of course, so I take her and walk her around and she doesn't stop. I'm starting to get nervous. It "seems" like everyone is looking at me like - why did you torture your child!

In the meantime Frances is completely unphased. And gets her ears pierced as well. She cried for all of about 10 seconds and then was back to laughing and giggling. Grace on the otherhand - screamed the whole rest of the way out of the mall. And she continued to cry off and on in the car. And when we got to the house she commenced the screaming again. Even after giving her a bottle, she still cried. But fortunately all that crying tuckered her out and she fell asleep pretty quickly.

Man I felt sooo bad for Gracie. If I hadn't seen how Frances had a fairly easy reaction - I would have completely thought I was torturing her! I'm so glad we decided to take them at the same time. If I had taken Grace alone, and first, I never would have gone back with Frances. Frances was still all smiles afterwards - she must feel really pretty :-) She was looking at Grace like, "what's your problem chick?" hahaha. Anywho, I gave them some baby tylenol. By tomorrow, a lot of the warmness, soreness, and throbbing should be going away. Now, cross fingers they don't get infected!

A thank you to Auntie Whitney whose Christmas gift for the girls paid for the earrings! We got a sweet "buy one get one free" deal on the earrings and free piercing with the earring purchase. I went with 14k gold (yellow gold for Frances, and white gold for Grace). I read gold was less likely to result in an allergic reaction. So with the BOGO deal, we really lucked out on price! Woohoo!

A HUGE thank you to Aunt Amy for helping me out. Seriously I can not say THANK YOU big enough!!! Not only did she do the "dirty task" of holding them for the piercings,  she also helped keep me sane (and from passing out from nerves).

So I was thinking about how Carrie felt bad for scheduling Ben's shots for his birthday... I can completely empathize now! Although, honestly, shots are a necessity... earrings are purely cosmetic. They look completely adorable though!

And on a side note - the lady that pierced their ears has a 5 month old son (born 3 days before the girls). She had a c-section at Howard County Hospital too - so we gather we were probably in the maternity ward at the same time. Fun!

Soooo happy birthday girls, I hope you will not have PTSD and will forgive me when you're older :-) Love you lots!

Gracie Rolled Over!

Wearing the sweaters Auntie Amy knitted

(Grace on left, Frances on right)

Frances has been rolling from her stomach to her back for awhile now. We were worried because Grace hadn't even attempted to do it. The doc said that Frances was actually ahead of schedule and that we shouldn't worry about Grace - she was right on target for her milestones. Well sure enough, the other day she was really trying to launch herself from her back to her stomach, so we were assisting her, and she was having fun. Well one of the times, we just left her on her belly, and voila! She rolled onto her back. Yay! We all cheered and she was happy as a clam.

Auntie Amy has been coming to help with childcare this week. WE LOVE AUNTIE AMY! Our nanny is on vacation for 3 weeks. I have to work from home since I don't have any paid time off left (maternity leave ate it up) so it's nice having the help between and during feedings. :-) Anywho, after work on Monday, we were playing with the babies on the gym - giving them play time on their tummies. Frances demonstrated her rolling skills. AND she even did it on command! We thought it was hilarious.

They will both be moving in no time... yikes!

On a side note, my previous post about the babies "sleeping through the night..." yeah - not so much. I guess it was just a fluke. It's frustrating. I know eventually they will, but it seems like it will be just in time for teething. Blah. Actually Frances had progressed to sleeping from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. But Gracie was waking up every hour to half hour starting at 1 a.m. It sucked. Then the past two nights, all of a sudden Gracie is sleeping but now Frances is waking up! You can't win for trying. I wish they would have identical patterns - since they are identical twins! Come on, give mommy and daddy a break. hahaha. Ah well.

Also, we had to call the pediatric GI to ask about upping their Pepcid dosage - since they had gained quite a bit of weight from the beginning of November to the end, at the 4 month checkup. So now they are ate .8 mL. Seems to help them at feedings. We'll see though....

Grandma and Grandpa are coming back at the end of next week, with Uncle Tommy - so the girls will have more entertainment. Should be fun :-)

New Jersey Family Visit AND 1st Turkey Day

Okay so I forgot to update on a couple things that have happened in the past month (aside from their 4-month checkup).

First, our relatives from New Jersey came to see the girls for the first time. Grace was chatting away with Great! and Auntie Judy. While Frances hung out with Uncle Howard and Auntie Ingrid. We had fun. And then we left Richard with the gals so that we could get some Indian food. Delicious!

 Uncle Howard and Auntie Ingrid entertain Frances

Then for Thanksgiving we headed to Great! and Uncle Freddy's house. Grandma and Grandpa Parry were there too. Aunties Barbara and Marina joined the festivities, as well as Uncle Raw-knee.

Uncle Raw-knee feeds Gracie and daddy feeds Francie Pants

Yum - formula and rice cereal!

Here are a bunch of pictures of activities and visitors from the past month - click here.