First doctor's appointment scheduled? CHECK!

I scheduled my first doc appt: Feb 13! I will be 8 weeks 3 days, and they will do a scan right then and there to see how many hearts are beating in there. YAY! (Yes, that's Friday the 13th, lol - good thing I'm not superstitious!) They said it would be a long appt - like 1.5 hours to do my physical and everything.

More good news - my doc office has midwives on staff! Normally, my first appt would be with a midwife or nurse practioner, but with my history of fraternal twins, severe morning sickness, premature labor, and a blood clot, they decided to get me in to see a doctor first instead. I will still ask to have a midwife assigned to me, though - I really wanted one last time but they didn't do that at my old doc office.

The next 3 weeks and 3 days are going to draaaaaaaaag... I can't wait to see the little bean!!!

Otherwise, I'm feeling ok. Heartburn is kicking my butt. Had a little mild nausea this morning but it was gone pretty quick. My coworker told me I looked pale this morning, even though I felt ok. Coffee tastes funny to me today, even though it's the same as always. In general, I haven't wanted sweets and I've been craving Chinese food, especially dumplings, somen noodles, stir fried broccoli, and soy sauce! I'm drinking water like crazy. I seem to have blank parts of my memory - I totally forgot what preggo brain can be like!

I keep having thoughts and dreams of a little girl. This is contrary to the old wives tales (craving salt = boy, lack of nausea = boy), Chinese gender predictor (boy), and Kyle saying "he" the night we found out we were pregnant. I'm awful at predicting gender for others (I don't remember ever guessing right!) so we'll see!

Oh, and pants are uncomfortable already. Is it bad to want maternity pants at 5 weeks?!?!? LMAO! I have plenty of room (usually I need a belt, which I put away last week), but I can't stand ANY pressure on my abdomen right now. I think it would be unprofessional to unbutton my pants at work, lol!

The twins are doing great! Giovanna had a cold 2 weekends ago, and it was Roman's turn this last weekend. I've been fighting it off since early last week. Mostly congestion and coughing - nothing alarming, but it interferes with sleep something fierce!

The kids identify all the letters by sight now (and sometimes they call them by the image that's on the puzzle - i.e. if I say "Where's the M?" they say "M for Monkey!" and grab the M!). Kyle is doing GREAT at teaching them letters and colors. Roman is 99% on yellow, orange, and purple, and about 75% on the other colors. Giovanna's drawing style is getting very deliberate. Instead of huge circles, lines, and scribbles, she slowly draws tiny circles, lines, and dots, then she identifies them as a specific object (heart, monkey, baby, balloon...). I've noticed a few times where Roman watches her, and when she identifies a drawing as a specific item, he nods and says "uh-huh! Monkey!" They both do that to each other when they identify animals, colors, and letters, too. Kyle is planning to start working on numbers with them this week (they are still counting to two, and can identify the number 7 for some reason), so that should be exciting! I love this stage so much.

Oh, and the sweetest recent moment... they were both dancing wildly to music (they are developing some amazing new moves, lol) and Roman got right in Giovanna's face and said "I LOVE OH!" and she giggled loudly and tried to hug/kiss him, at which point he turned away and kept dancing, lol!!

I'll try to get some pictures posted in the next few days - we haven't got many recent ones with us all feeling like poo the last couple weeks.

Well, it's official!

We're officially PREGNANT! Just got the results back from the lab. No question now!

As of today (1/17):

• I am 4 weeks, 4 days pregnant (248 days to go!)
• I'm due September 22
• Feeling fine, other than tired and bloated (I already can't wear a belt - the pressure is too uncomfortable!).

As for the likelihood of twins again, my chances are 5% (as opposed to 2.5%, which is the normal statistic). I will be pushing for an early ultrasound to see how many hearts are beating in there!

I did my Yoga Mama video I bought last time I was preggo - boy it's a nice workout! Not too strenuous, but I feel relaxed and positive afterward.

You might notice I added my pregnancy ticker to the top of my blog for easy reference. (If you are reading this in an email, click the "The Art of Monkey" link at the very bottom of the email). I had to fudge the code a bit to make the ticker appear, so hopefully it will work! It appears to be a day off, but that's close enough for me. ;)

As for the twins, they don't really understand yet. They had a lot of questions about the ladies' tummies on my Yoga Mama video, and seemed interested when I said there was a baby in there! We know they love babies (especially Boogie!) so I'm not too worried at the moment. It will sure be interesting to see them as older siblings, instead of peer siblings!

The night we got our positive home pregnancy test I went in to tuck the kids in. I thought they were asleep and I was just going to put their blankets over them. I tucked Roman in, and when I turned around, Giovanna was awake! Her back was to me and I don't think she knew I was there. I watched her put her stuffed puppy and monkey on her pillow next to her, then pull her blanket on top of them, pat them sweetly, then lay down, arm across them in a big hug. It. Was. So. Freaking. Cute.

Roman's big thing lately is to be independent. Just a few weeks ago, if we asked "do you want help?" he'd say "help" and nod. Now, he says "NO! MY HELP!" and refuses any assistance. It's kind of funny and cute, but not terribly convenient when it takes an hour to get dressed instead of 5 minutes!

Oh, the next 7.5 months or so will be interesting... ;)

Happy New Year!

I took Dec 31 and Jan 2 off, so I had a 5-day minivacation! Tory and Laura were in town, and we spent a lot of time with friends and family at the Children's Museum. We also went out and spent some of the kids' Christmas money on some new toys and clothes, and we got a few new movies and new-to-us games.

We opened Grammy's Christmas presents for the kids - a ton of books! The kids were tremendously excited to find "pwesents!!" in the living room after their nap, and they opened the whole stack in about 5 minutes! There are a few that they bring us repeatedly so we can "wread pease" to them, lol.

Grandpa and Grandma J got them toddler trikes and a couple wooden food sets where the pieces are held together by velcro so the kids can "cut" it apart with their very dull wooden knives. The kids looooove the food toys - they cut it apart over and over again, shouting "I DID IT!" every time! They are very excited about the trikes, and are learning how to use them - so far a lot of scooting and pushing has occurred, not so much pedaling...

Tory and Laura got them coloring books (already very decorated) and natural wax crayons that are holding up VERY well to the kids' art time. Their favorite thing to color in the books are the dogs ("puppies!") so it's a good thing one is a dog coloring book! They are currently very obsessed with the tee-wa-wa (chihuahua) lol.

We also got the kids a wooden letters puzzle (they LOVE LOVE LOVE the ones Auntie Dawn gave them!) and they are doing sooooo well at learning their letters! We can dump them out and ask them to find a specific letter, and they are right 95% of the time! I'm INCREDIBLY impressed by this, of course!

Our house is full of so many fun things for the kids to create, read, and play with! This makes mommy and daddy very happy (and busy!)!

Potty training is going slowly but surely. Usually 2-3 times a day, and only pee so far. Stickers and temp tattoos are proving to be great incentive for using the potty. Woe be unto us when we run out of car stickers, though - they seem to be the favorite...

Giovanna will pretty much always pee within 5 seconds of sitting on the potty. Then again a few minutes later. Then again a few minutes after that... She asks to go potty a couple times a day, and she likes to wipe herself, and will let me know if she has "more pee" or if she's "done" (usually accompanied by the slamming of the potty lid, lol). She pooped on the potty once last week, and was soooooo proud!

Roman wants to be part of the potty activity, and will let me take off his pants/diaper about 90% of the time. And he'll actually pee on the potty about 80% of the time. He doesn't usually ask to go, but gets excited if someone else (i.e. me or Giovanna) brings it up. He won't pee sitting down anymore - only standing/squatting backwards, which is a bit messy, but whatever. Nothing a little 409 or Lysol can't fix.

I think they key so far has been asking them if they want to go potty at least once in the morning and once in the afternoon (if Giovanna hasn't already asked), and keeping them occupied once we get in there. We usually have a few board books (ones I don't care if they get peed on) and we play with squares of toilet paper, or bath letters, or whatever keeps them busy so they don't want to get up and run their nekkid butts around the house, lol. Also, after I give them their stickers, I ask if the want to go show them off to daddy, which they get VERY excited and proud about!

They pretty much say anything, now. If they are upset, they have a hard time telling us why, but we can usually get a few key words out of them ("table ow!" or "Roman/Boogie push"). They give us smooches ('moochees) and hugs (uuuughs) and say I love you (I luv oh) spontaneously a lot now! It's the best thing ever. They also give us (and each other) mooches when we get hurt. And they say sorry (sozzee) and give each other hugs if they hurt each other or snatch stuff from each other! They are starting to use conjunctions and other filler words to create complete sentences (i.e. "car is loud" instead of "car loud"). They are also saying longer words like butterfly (buh-luh-lye) and dinosaur (die-no-soh), too!

Their color recognition continues to improve, especially Roman's! And both of them count to two (or count to two over and over if there are more than two of something). A big step from "one...one...one...one..." lol!

Pictures and videos:
http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/2009/2009-01-02/?start=all

http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/2009/2009-01-05/?start=all

Note: sorry about the blank photos in previous Art of Monkey posts. I had to reorganize my folders a bit on Photobucket and it broke all the links. I will try to get them fixed, if I can find the time!

I got Christmas for Christmas!

So finances are a little light this year, so I had pretty much come to terms with not springing for a Christmas tree or many presents. That's fine - we'd make Christmas about love and fun artsy activities instead. The kids don't know the difference, right?

Well yesterday I got home and what did I see?
A bunch of presents, under a lit Christmas tree!
I was astounded; the kids' eyes were alight;
Kyle had worked all day to get the mood right.

The stockings were hung on the DVD shelf,
And the decorations were up, complete with an elf!
(Technically, it was not one elf, but two,
and a few stuffed reindeer completed the crew.)

I shrieked and I jumped, and hugged my dear man,
For I hadn't even predicted that this was his plan.
He'd been saving up dollars and coins for ages,
Just to see this look on all of our faces.

LOL, ok, enough sillyness. ;)

Kyle had set up the Christmas tree during the kids' nap yesterday, and when they got up, Roman came around the corner and said "WHOOOAAAA!" and what Kyle said sounded a lot like "What the hell?" Since then, Roman has been obsessed with the tree, pointing out all of the ornaments "Bear? Ball? Light? Handle?" (candy canes apparently look like handles to him, lol). Giovanna was more interested in the multitude of stuffed animals and Santa-ish elves Kyle had set up all around.

They went to bed late Christmas eve (we joked that they were trying to wait up for Santa, but really, they had just had a late nap), but that didn't keep them from waking up at their usual BCOD (butt crack of dawn, as Kyle delicately puts it). We were all up by 8, and after a brief banana and crackers snack, we got down to opening presents. The big ones for the kids were a temporary tattoo kit and a firetruck that beeps, talks, and plays a little music. Giovanna opened the kit, and was very excited, but nothing could compare to Roman's reaction opening the truck. Squealing like a little girl:



We also did some cookie decorating (we made them a few days earlier), drawing, and a lot of temporary tattooing.

BUT THE MOST UNEXPECTED GIFT OF ALL??? POTTY TRAINING!
Of course, we're not nearly ready to go to underpants yet, but Giovanna asked to go the potty once on Xmas eve, and three times (actually more, but three times she was willing to take off her diaper, lol) and peed in the potty every time! And once she got her sticker, Roman peed pretty quickly after that, so I know they both have the ability to control it. The last time, he even stood up to pee (he could use a little practice with his aim, but that's what cleaners are for, right?). I think he was really excited to be able to pee like Daddy. :)

Anyway, I'm still in shock about it. Granted, we did spend a LONG TIME in the bathroom over the last 27 hours. About an hour or longer each time they wanted to go potty. But they WANTED to be there. I couldn't drag them off to put their diapers back on until they had stickers to show Daddy!

Well, the kids are in bed and we will be shortly (watching our traditional Xmas movie: Die Hard!).

Here are pictures and video of the kids' third Christmas:
http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/Year%202/2008-12-25%20XMAS/

Holy snow, Batman!

This is what our porch looks like right now:

Yeah. So, we're pretty much snowed in. I even get a snow day from work tomorrow!

It snowed last weekend, too, but it was just enough that we could take the kids out to play (link to pics below). Now, it's too much! Kyle walked to the store this morning for a few needed items, while I stayed home with the kids. No way am I going outside unless absolutely necessary!

Another fun stay-home activity today was painting ornaments! I made some out of salt dough last night, and since we don't have cookie cutters they came out a little uneven and lumpy, but luckily you can't really tell from the pics. :)

Note the kids' vastly different styles. For the first 5 minutes, Roman had nothing but one red dot in the middle of each of his 5 ornaments, and by then Giovanna's were already smeared with 3 colors, lol!!

Photos of playing in the snow: http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/Year%202/2008-12-14%20SNOW/

Photos and video of ornament-decorating: http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/Year%202/2008-12-21/

First trip to the ZOO!

We made a trip to the Oregon Zoo here in Portland on Sunday. Of course, it rained a lot, but we still had a great time.

Kyle and I talked awhile back about giving the kids time apart. He would take one and I would take the other, and we'd go do separate activities. We partly wanted to do this to give them each an opportunity to bond with each parent without competition, but mostly to give them a sense of self that isn't linked with their twin. I've heard from other twin parents that their children had a hard time carving out their own identities - they are always labeled as a "twin." I can't imagine how that must be!

Still, even though I fully understand the benefits of separating the kids from time to time, I also had a very hard time making it happen. I'm not sure why, except that it was out of the norm for us (we always do everything as a family when I'm home!), and while I looked forward to the opportunity to spend time alone with each kid, part of me still felt like I was taking mommy-time from the other one. Kyle and I talked about it for awhile until we decided on a compromise. We would all four go to the zoo, but each parent/child pair would take a different path, then loop around and meet at the primates. This first time, I took Roman and Kyle took Giovanna.

Once at the spot where the path split, my anxiety raised again. I braced myself for Giovanna crying for me as Roman and I walked away, or Roman wanting his daddy. But we all said "bye bye" and the kids were off in their separate directions - no problems at all! Roman and I went to look at the penguins, sea lions, polar bears, seals, fish, turtles, ocelots, and tigers. Kyle and Giovanna went up to the mountain animals. Ro was extremely excited to see the seals and sea lions. A little girl, about four or so, was there also, and was all excited with him. All of the exhibits were very fun, but the best was the orangutans. They were right by the glass, and one woke up and turned his head toward Roman a few times. He giggled and gasped and grabbed my leg, his dimples getting quite a workout. Giovanna had a great time, too, of course!

We all met back up as the kids were falling asleep on their feet (we made them walk the whole way!). We fed them a snack and headed home for a nice long nap. Kyle and I watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" which was actually pretty good.

It was a very successful outing, and easier than I had anticipated. Next time, I'll take Boogie and Kyle will take Ro. We may go to the aquarium, or one of us will go to the Children's Museum and the other may stay home. Then we'll switch again!

Daddy trying to show the kids the bear was ok:

Finally got the kids to go near the bear:

I guess the smaller bear was less scary!

Riding the wood goat:

Oooooo - otters!

With the faux penguins:

For more pics: http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/Year%202/2008-12-08/?start=all

Post Turkey-Day blues

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I like my job, but not as much as vacationing with family! I took an entire week off from work (my first vacation since MATERNITY LEAVE two years ago!! And that wasn't exactly vacation...) so we could visit family in Bellingham for a decent length of time. And visit we did!

We stayed at my mama's house, and the kids greeted her with "GRAMMY!" for the first time! They finally started saying it on the way to her house. Of course, she was thrilled. Her hubby, Rick, is Pop. The kids also started saying Temi (for Aunt Temi), GG (what everyone calls my grandma), and a bunch of other folks' names! We got to see Auntie WeeWee (my Aunt Wendi) and Uncle Dewain, who both flew in from across the country, and almost all the rest of my family (sorry everyone - too many to list!). My sister (Aunt Temi) and her hubby (Uncle Matt) also traveled up from Portland for the week, so we got to spend a LOT of time with them - very fun!

We spent one rowdy evening with our friends Suman and Jason, Rachael and Justin with their son Sam, and Suman's sister Nav. Much pizza-consuming, hugging, squealing, baby-chasing, and "awwww"ing ensued. It was a blast. :)

The entire week and weekend were absolutely fun (minus the terrible sleeping by the twins). They were sooooo happy to get back home today with the animals and their own cribs. They fell asleep tonight with almost zero fuss. Awesome. :)

For pics of the epic weekend:
http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/Brieshon/Year%202/2008-11-30/?start=all