Not much to share at the moment. We've been stuck inside due to the icky weather conditions (what was up with the snow?) so our days have been filled with lots of stories, fort-building, bathroom and kitchen exploration (Braxton climbed into the bathtub after turning on the water), silly songs, and indoor playdates. The boys are just being the boys; toddling around, yelling with excitement at EVERYTHING, kissing, hugging and hitting each other (and themselves), stealing toys, learning tons (they can correctly identify two letters and 1 number each!), and just being cute. Contrary to what many of my fellow twin moms have led me to believe, I am really enjoying this age. They keep us super busy, but they're a blast to hang out with. About a month and a half ago as they were struggling through their frustration of not walking, perpetually snotty, and cutting their canine teeth, I was just about ready to have my tubes tied. But we survived and they're back to being the little bundles of joy they always have been (so can you tie ONE tube?). Good thing cause potty training and "terrible two's" are knocking at our door...eek!

OH, I almost forgot. We had our first 9-1-1 call! Apparently, Caleb felt he was in grave danger here as he was playing in his pop-up tent. I noticed a voice coming from my locked phone and sure enough, this lady's asking "what is your emergency". Isn't it a little early for the pranks guys?


This was taken at our M.O.M.'s (Mothers of multiples) holiday party. Not to brag, but our boys were two of the very few children that didn't cry on Santa and the Mrs.' lap.


Um, I don't know.



Such a poser!

note: This is Steven. Larami wanted to post this but she couldn't because she was too busy crying.

We're back from San Antonio and as much as I'd love to go on and on about how much we enjoyed it, I have 3 suitcases staring at me waiting to be unpacked so I'll have to be brief. But I just had to post pictures of the boys' new room at Rara's house. I tried to imagine it as she described it over the phone, but I have to say, the images in my head were quite scary. When I saw it in person, I was in shock! It was like a scene from Trading Spaces. I'll let you guys see for yourself:). Enjoy. Oh, and the boys fell in love with Auntie Stash's dog.

I had the pleasure of meeting with a photographer I met on a message board and she was kind enough to take pictures of the boys and let me observe her in action. I can't believe how incredibly easy she made things look. To be honest, the boys appeared to be so uncooperative that I was certain she'd email me 20 shots of the back of their heads or half-closed eyes. When I saw them my jaw literally dropped. I've never seen them look like this in pictures! I learned so much by watching her (mainy that I have a loooong way to go). By the way, her name is Paula Hickson and her website is http://www.paulahicksonphotography.com/. She's based in Magnolia but will travel up to 20 or 30 miles for sessions (not sure which one) and she is a genuine sweetheart. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures! Oh, and we're taking requests for prints as Christmas presents:).

You want to nap in a collared shirt, socks, tennis shoes and a bare booty? Got it.

What you have here is proof that sneaking into a private school and using their fall scene as a backdrop without permission does not produce good results. But it did give us a laugh. I'm guessing these won't make it into my portfolio.

So we had a couple of days to sleep on it and we decided to go ahead and finish what we started. Here's Braxton and his new 'do.

Before:




After:

We had planned on cutting the boys' hair today, but we only made it through one. Check it:

Before:

After:

The big guy.

Please accept my deepest apologies for visiting without your great grandsons :). Here are a couple of pictures to hold you over until I bring them by soon. It was great to see you as always.

So I guess I'm weaning the boys from nursing. Since I began this journey with them my biggest fear has been that I would be ready to wean long before they were. I promised myself that as long as they expressed a need to nurse either physically or emotionally, I would do whatever it took to meet that need. My wish was that one day we'd all three wake up and realize that this is no longer something we needed from one another. Tonight I got my wish. Within the past month and a half, we've gone from 4 sessions to 3 (only for the past week or so) and now tonight we dropped what I was sure to be the most difficult to drop - bed time. I don't know what moved me to try this today, it just sort of happened. For the past couple of months that feeding had been such a struggle for me. I've been so wiped out after chasing them around, cooking them meals, cleaning after the meals, hauling them in and out of the car, baths, and so on that by the time I got them propped up on that pillow to nurse, it felt more like another chore than a bonding experience. And they're so big and so uninterested at times that half of that time was spent refereeing eye-poking, hair-pulling fights, and protecting my own hair and earrings from their grasps - hardly a cherishable moment for anyone involved.

So we went about our normal post-nursing routine - bath, roll around on the bed, book, prayers, cuddle, bed - only we prolonged the cuddles, left out the nursing part and replaced it with a sippie cup of warmed whole milk. They were stunned to say the least. They sipped, swallowed, stared in suspense, then a huge smile spread across their faces. As we lied in the bed, they both took turns cuddling close to me and never once tried to nurse which served as a much needed confirmation that I was doing the right thing (when I really thought about it I realized that it's been quite a while since they actually initiated nursing - it's been more of a mommy led routine than anything). We layed them down as usual, they did their 3 minutes of babbling and whining, and drifted right to sleep. I couldn't have asked for a smoother experience. No sadness, no tears, nothing like I expected. I plan to continue the morning feeding and one day-time feeding for as long as it's pleasant for all of us.

*By the way, thank you so much to all you twinstuff ladies that offered your undying support, encouragement and advice over this past year (especially in those early months of clogged ducts and round-the-clock pumping;)). We wouldn't have made it without you!

Since we were graced with an afternoon cooler than 130 degrees, I took the boys out to our courtyard to play in the grass. As you can see by the pictures that follow, they had other plans. Apparently grass is like kryptonite to these guys so they remained on the concrete, occasionally teetering on the edge to pluck a blade or two and offer it to me with a "toe-dah?!" or a "buh-DAH?!". For those that don't know, todah and badah are Caleb's and Braxton's favorite words and they represent anything from light switch to water to can-you-pick-up. I didn't press the issue of crawling around in the grass because after all, it is the spot that all the dogs in our complex go to relieve themselves. Either way, we had a great time. Oh, and they were very confused by the whole jean situation. They just sat there, legs straight out like arrows, for about 5 minutes. But once they discovered their amazing knee protecting abilities, they were sold and crawling all over the place. Enjoy the pictures!

Mr. August


Opposite directions....ALL DAY!


Just too cute for words