We had friends over to christen the new swingset in the backyard - and Abby even let Harper swing on her swings. Garrett gave us hope that some day in the future our children will be able to climb the "Thunderdome" (that's for you ARuss).
We've done two days of work and daycare and everyone is doing really well. I can hardly stand the mental stimulation and "free" time I now have. Not to mention regular showers and teeth brushing. Extra credit to any friends who chuckle with me about the naming of two conference rooms while I was gone: "Small Room" and "First Come, First Serve Room". Is that good enough for "The Office"?
The twins are 2 of 5 babies in their room, and their teacher is doing really well keeping their schedule. Yesterday after their first day, they came home and ate at 8 p.m. and then sleep soundly until we woke them up at 6 a.m. this morning. Holy cow! We're holding our breath to see what happens tonight. They are in the same crib in the nursery - Abby has done awesome in the full size bed in her new room.
On my last week of maternity leave, we thought we'd tackle one more house update. We're now the proud owners of an enlarged deck off of the kitchen, covering our old concrete slab. And we bid farewell to the last three (partially) standing Bradford pear trees. Josh and "Pa" have worked diligently on the latest addition to Six Flags over the Hansons, a new swingset, which will go in the area where the red clay is in the photos (it has mulch over it now - more photos to come once the whole thing gets put together). 37 steps . . . 8 bags of small screws, nails, and bolts, 2 big boxes . . . eezy peezy!
So, due to our AC breaking down the week before last, we've been keeping an inflatable mattress in Abby's room to try and move her towards the big girl bed. She's done pretty well - I think just one 3 a.m. visit to our room, with an enthusiastic "Hi Momma", and just a few returns to the crib. Below you'll see a shot of her with the bed, minus her crib in her room, in a before and after shot. The shot after she fell asleep makes me laugh - there's 8 books, 3 babies, 2 blankets, 2 bunnies, a penguin, a bear, and a set of stacking cards.
We've crossed into the Promised Land, somewhat. These guys are doing so awesome - down to 6 bottles a day, and they've made it from 9 p.m. - 4 a.m. a number of nights this last week. Can I hear an "Amen"?
Today's my first official day of having the twins on my own. It's 4:23 p.m., and so far so good. I'm trying to move the twins to a 4 hour feeding schedule - so far they've eaten at 5 a.m., 8 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. One out of three isn't too bad. They've been asleep at the same time a few times - I did manage to take a shower, eat breakfast and lunch, and get a load of laundry done. We just got back from visiting Aunt Allison in the hospital - I timed it perfectly by walking into her room (as she was sleeping) with two screaming babies so that her mom had to help me feed them.
