Santa

Very quickly - just thought I'd write about today's Santa pics. Each year, the employee club has Santa come to the corporate offices for pictures. Last year, Ben & Ella were about 5 1/2 months so it was rather easy to get a good picture. This year, now that they are 17 months and have some (or a lot of, in Ella's case) stranger anxiety, not so much. Ella CRIED before I even put her on Santa's lap - Benjamin looked freaked out and almost burst out crying. The look he had on his face was just heartbreaking to me, as was Ella's! We ended up being in a few of the pictures and I wasn't prepared for it - I would have worn something different if I knew I was going to be in the pictures. I really should have guessed we would be needed in the pics to calm the children. I didn't get a chance to take some of my own, so we'll see how these pics turn out.

It was nice though that they gave the kids a little gift (a DVD) and some treats (they enjoyed their first snickerdoodle).

OB Appointment & Cute Children Stories

First, OB appointment went well. She checked my cervix and it is closed. She did the FFN which came back negative - thank goodness...though it didn't come back positive last time until the 2nd time she did that test around week 29-30. We heard the baby's heartbeat, so yay. She said next time, she might do an ultrasound and is when I'll be doing the glucose test - joy. That was pretty much it. It was a quick visit as she was off to deliver another baby. That remind me - I guess my OB will be on vacation the week I'm due. That makes me sad that it might not be my OB to deliver my baby..again. Oh well. I've seen most of the OB's there so it wouldn't be like I've never seen this person before ever.

Second, onto cute children stories.

The other night, I mistakenly said "as soon as papa comes home, we'll give you guys a bath." well, Ella got all excited as she does when Jon comes home and started clapping and screaming while running toward the door. I had to tell her that papa wasn't home yet, but he will be soon. Then, I said "let's go find our night-night clothes, then we'll get the bath ready." well, she was not happy that I went into their bedroom to get their pjs instead of going into the bathroom. You would think that she would be super excited to take a bath, but she didn't want to stay in the bathtub too long.

Then tonight, I'm at home alone with the twins as Jon went into work. Ella started twirling around and laughing while doing so and Benjamin thought that looked like fun, so he started doing it too. It was rather cute. Earlier in the evening, I was reading a book and I said 'baby' to Benjamin and he repeated it back to me! :-D I tried to get Ella to say it, but she didn't want to. She did say "kitty" as Oliver walked by. :-D

That's about it. Time to go find some chocolate.

24 1/2 weeks - pregnancy update

They say 24 weeks is when a baby is possibly viable outside the womb, so yay for reaching that point! I heard on the radio this morning, an ad for Swedish (I think) about how a woman had one twin baby at 5 months and the other 3 weeks later. How horrible to have them so early! However, baby - you cannot come out until March! Yes, I am anxious to find out if you are a boy or a girl, but I would rather wait until you are full term to find out than have you come any earlier than anticipated.


This Friday, I have my next OB appointment in which she will do the FFN test and check my cervix. yay...

I have been feeling some pressure like I did before - so I'm a little anxious about what the results of the test and cervix checking might be, but I'm hopeful that things will be o.k.

Most of the time, I feel pretty good. There are a few times that I have some hip pain but it happens more when I'm doing a lot of standing up time (the weekend), so I need to find my support belt and start wearing that per PT's orders. For the time being, I have stopped going to the PT as it doesn't seem as necessary as last time, but if my hip starts bugging me again when I am wearing the support belt, I'll probably go back.

At some point in the near future is the yucky gestational diabetes test - will find out on Friday when that will be. I think she said before about 26 weeks or so.

That's about it, I think. More news this Friday (if I remember to blog - it's a good thing I decided to not try to do National Blog Posting Month).

Toddler Updates

Yesterday, I get to the daycare and notice that Benjamin has a bite mark on his arm. The daycare told me that another toddler (younger than Ben & Ella) bit him on his arm. Benjamin screamed out and they consoled him. Ella saw Benjamin crying and figured out what had gone on, I guess, because she went over to the other kid and yelled at him. She was actually scolding the other kid (she likes to yell stop to our kitties because we yell stop at them when they scratch the couch), then she went over to Benjamin and pet his head to comfort him. What a good sister, she is.

Then they were telling me that Ella is better at sticking up for herself and will take back toys taken from her, but Benjamin won't. And I'm like, huh? And they clarified that Benjamin will stick up to Ella but not to other little kids (I was going to say, he fights with Ella all the time). If a toy is taken from him by another little kid (though he is the biggest one in the under 2 age group), he will just go get another toy - unless it's Ella that takes the toy, then he'll just take it back.

In other developments, Benjamin is more and more repeating words that I say. Last night, I said, "where are your eyes?" and he said "eyes" with a huge grin on his face. Ella pointed to her eyes. I haven't really heard Ella repeat words that I say though I know she understands them.

We got them balls the other night and Ella likes to yell "whoa!" every time she throws a ball. It is so incredibly cute. Benjamin actually yelled "whee!" last night when throwing a ball.

This weekend, they are having their Santa pictures taken here at my office. I'm a little anxious about how they will react - especially Ella. I hope that if she sees us, it will be o.k. We'll see this Saturday! Then Sunday, we were invited to a pre-Thanksgiving Day dinner. Yum! Thanksgiving dinner two times in one week! I'm looking forward to it!

Twilight comes out this weekend too - it's not looking like I'll be seeing it this weekend (though I would - I just don't want to go by myself), but maybe next weekend? Maybe?

17 months!

Today, Ben & Ella are 17 months. They are such cuties.

Yesterday, they came to visit me at work along with their papa. We had some lunch and they enjoyed walking down the hallways. At one point, Ella and I were a bit ahead of Benjamin and Jon and when Benjamin turned the corner to where we were, he smiled and started running toward me with his arms raised. So cute! Ella saw him and started waving hi to him. Cuteness!

When I first went out to the car to meet them, Ella saw me and started clapping and squealing. It is so nice to get that kind of reaction.

Everyone remarked at how big they've become since the last time they saw them in person (which was 5 months ago today on their birthday). My sweeties are growing up on me! I love them so much!!!

Last night, I heard Benjamin say for the first time "hi" - he waves, but I've never heard him say hi before. Ella said "mommy" the other day - usually she says 'mom' or 'momma'. :-D Both of them like to read books - sometimes by themselves or sometimes with a parent (though Ella more so with a parent). Oh, and Benjamin and Ella both know how to nod their head yes or no and will even trick us sometimes with their answers to certain questions. Ella is busy teething another tooth while Benjamin seems to have just 4 still. I'm sure there are other things but I'll have to write about them later (or you can check out Jon's blog).

In other news, we bought a minivan last week. Traded in our cute little Civic for a minivan. Was able to get a good deal on Civic to mostly pay for the cost of the minivan. It's a 2006 Dodge Caravan with 22,000 miles on it.

Tonight, we have some people from the church we have joined coming over for small group. It will be nice to have it our place so Ben & Ella will be more comfortable with not seeing us in their eyesight at every moment. Though even when we are in their eyesight, it doesn't matter to Ella, we must be holding her when there are strangers around.

Quick Pregnancy Update

Last night, I was feeling the baby move around a lot. At one point, it seemed we had a bit of a game going on in which I pushed down a bit and the baby responded. Of course, the baby would stop when Jon was around so Jon didn't get to feel the baby move.

Also last night, Ella was being a fussy little girl and would not go to sleep. I knew she was tired as she didn't have a decent nap all day yesterday. After screaming for about 3-4 minutes, she fell asleep, but woke up again about 1/2 hour later. I went to go get her and brought her out to the livingroom with me as I watched SNL. She fell asleep in my arms right away - she just needed a snuggle, I guess. As I held her to my chest, the baby was moving around so much I thought for sure it would wake up the sleepy Ella in my arms, but nope.

Anyway, that's it for now. Looking at a minivan tonight - I don't wanna, especially since I'm going on my own. We're trading in our Civic for a minivan. I looked at one on Saturday, but it had too much mileage on it for my comfort. The one I'm seeing tonight has only has 22,000 miles on it.