Happy New Year!

Hello all, At last a new update! I am sure all of my readers are just as excited about that as I am. The months of November and December flew by with little time for me to take a breath, let alone upload photos and type an update. I guess this is my new reality and I just need to get used to it. Right . . . Anywho, here are a ton of pictures from the last two months so you all can see how big Hope and Jack are getting and of course how adorable they remain!!

Here is Jack playing with his Pakistani cousin Emaan. My friend Kulsoom came for a visit in early November and brought along the adorable Emaan. Kulsoom and I had due dates only a day apart so the babies are the same adjusted age, even though technically Hope and Jack are about 6 weeks older. Jack and Emaan have very similar personalities and had a lot of fun chatting with each other. The one big difference between Emaan and the twins is that she has a gorgeous full head of hair, we were all envious!!!

The same day Kulsoom left, Mark and Liz arrived for the night. Here they are posing with the twins. I think this was minutes before Jack spit up down Mark's neck. He may never let Liz visit again! Sorry Mark . . .
Posing in the first of many Christmas outfits. It is not easy to get cute shots of them both at the same time, but I love this one of Jack and both their expressions in the next one.

Here is Jack and his Pop (Kevin's dad) on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving weekend also brought a visit from our friends Steve and Rebecca. You'll remember them as the newlyweds that led us to Maine this summer for their wedding. Hope immediately snuggled in comfortably for a nap and Jack hammed it up as usual.
Here is Hope and Cousin Payton (my cousin Roxanne's daughter) together at my dad's. Everybody loves the activity mat.
Uncle Ben is becoming a baby pro.
Here a couple shots from Kevin and my weekend away to New Orleans for Beau and Jean's wedding. It was a quick fun filled weekend with the ND Sorin boys and their ladies. Kevin's parents and his Aunt Mary babysat for us. Unfortunately both Hope and Jack developed really bad colds while we were away so they were quite a handful for their sitters. :-( Never fear, it was only a week out of day care before they were back to normal. Ugh.

Thanks for the Christmas outfits, Grandmom!
Kevin loves how possessive Hope looks of her reindeer bib.
One of our final baths with the tummy tub in the kitchen sink. My baby girl is too big for the bucket and for getting dressed the counter. Where has the time gone?? She loves her thumb. The other day I caught her with both thumbs in her mouth at once - tough to choose which one tastes better so why not try them both.
Attempting to get the perfect shots for our Christmas card . . .
Perfect!
A certain little boy loves the camera and his feet!

Pretty and pensive Hopester
Checking out the Christmas lights
Christmas Eve at my Dad's. Jack is checking out the toys from Auntie El and sporting his Christmas sweater outfit.
My dad and his proud Granddad brag book on Christmas morning
Getting ready to go see Grandmom and Pop on Christmas. This girl loved her velvety pants!
Christmasing with Uncle Jim, Jimmy, and Abby
Jack in motion - there is no stopping this fella now that he sits and rolls. I am fearing the day he figures out how to crawl. Buddy, we are in no rush.
"Granddad will you read me the brown bear book again?"
The picture says it all -- Like father, like daughter

Putting this together has reminded me of all the people we've gotten to see these last few weeks. It also reminded me of those we did not get to see. We were sad to have to cancel our trip up to Massachusetts to see my aunts, uncle, cousins and (soon to be parents) Bridget/Dave, but Jack was taking a long time kicking his Christmas cold and we were fearing more missed work if he didn't get better by New Years. Luckily he seems to be doing better now. Work is extra busy for both Kevin and myself. The Lower Merion Aces are 5-3 and having a pretty good season so far. I am in a rush to finish up my experiments at Penn as I am starting a new job at Johnson&Johnson come the end of February. I am really excited about the switch. I will still be doing basic cancer research in an area similar to what I am doing now at Penn. The commute is shorter, but I still can take my train. Yay! Along with this change, we are about to start a nanny watching Hope and Jack in our home. This will hopefully make all our lives easier as we expect the babies to nap better, stay on a good routine, and thrive. Plus, I won't have to miss as much work due to minor sicknesses!

My new years resolution is to stay in better touch with all who are dear to me. Becoming a working mom has made it hard for me to find the time in the day/night to write emails and make phone calls. Even though I am out of contact, please know that I am thinking about all of you and hope to do a better job in 2011 staying in touch.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2011!

XOXO,
Kate

The great 6 month weigh in!

We had our six month check up last night. The twins will be 7 months on Nov. 22 so its actually a 6.5 month check up. Hope weighed in at 14 lbs 15 oz and Jack at 13 lbs 10 oz. I cannot believe that both babies have gained approx 10 lbs since birth.

For those of you who want more numbers, both kids are gaining a lot of ground "catching up." Here are the changes in percentile for their age group (compared to other 6.5 month old babies) since their four month appointment.

HOPE
weight - 20% (at 4 month checkup) to 25% (at this appointment)
length - 32% to 64%
head size - 44.5% to 64%

JACK
weight - no change, still hovering in the 1 percentile
length - 3% to 30%
head - 24% to 42%

I was really impressed by these comparisons, especially the changes in length - considering their prematurity. In the end, we may get a couple tall basketball players! Granted if any of you have ever seen me play basketball, you know to pray that Hope and Jack did not inherit my hand eye coordination!

We are hoping their weights will continue to improve, especially Jack's, now that we are working solid food into their diets. We are making slow progress, but have enlisted our experienced day care staff to help Hope and Jack learn how to eat. So far they've only had rice cereal to experiment with, but our doctor suggested sweetening the deal with some pears or peaches, so that is the works for the next few days.

Other than that, things are good. I've gotten a taste of what it is like being a stay at home mom as we've had to deal with the stomach flu/fever/stuffy noses recently. So far they've all been minor illnesses and I am very thankful for that. We have a busy next few days with visits from Kulsoom and baby Emaan, followed by the newlyweds Liz and Mark and then the baptism of my cousin Roxanne's baby Payton. It will be crazy, but wonderful to see so many special people and get to show off our kids.

Just a few new photos for you all to enjoy:

I think they loved how they looked in their coordinating jumpers as much as their Mom did!

Bed shot #3 (compare with June 14th and Sept. 8th posts)

Pictures from Halloween

September-October update

As my friend Hillary likes to point out, I am not a very good blogger. Not surprisingly, while on bed rest, I had more time for my posts that I do now especially since I've been back at work. But don't give up on me -- Kevin still is a crazed photographer of our kids and Hope and Jack are still so darn cute, so I will make up for the quantity of posts with the quality of the updates and cute shots!!

A quick update before the pics -- things are going well for us in Havertown. Everyone has adjusted to our new schedule of day care and work. It's crazy for all of us at times, but in general everything is going fine. I have found that I am pretty happy to be back to work. It is a nice change to the daily routine of bottles, diapers, and naps and I am enjoying using my science brain again.

Hope and Jack are great. They get more and more fun each day. It has been wonderful to watch their personalities develop and see them start to interact with each other. Jack is quite a little charmer with a big smile and a lot to say. He knows what he wants and isn't afraid to let you know. Hope is more mellow and an all around happy baby. She has been talking a lot lately and is especially a fan of her time on the activity mat. She takes after her father and really loves her naps! We don't know how much they weigh currently, but we have an appointment in early November, so you'll have to check back in for the next update. But every time I pick up both car seats and lug the kiddos up the two flights of stairs to day care, I am reminded that they are growing like crazy!

As you can tell by the pictures below, there has been a lot of training of our future super fans this past month or so. We will choose to focus on the cuteness of the babies in the pictures instead of the disappointment with the end of the Phillies playoff run and the not so stellar performance of ND football thus far this season.

Jack's first tribute to Touchdown Jesus
Umm, Daddy . . . my naps are more important than the big game!
Fans-in-training with DadI couldn't resist these matching outfits with ducky bibs! Could they be any cuter? I don't think so.
Jack on the activity mat showing off his big smile and great head control.
Go Phillies!
Jack loves his hoodie as much as his mom does!
In preparation for Halloween and Fall, I suggested a trip to a local farm.

Here they are looking serious before our big adventure
Dad had Hope in stitches (as usual). Jack was not as amused.
Actually he was just really tired as he fell asleep soon after the above picture was snapped. We loved Hope's choice of leg placement and Jack's hand.
Soon after that Hope also fell asleep and got some assistance with holding her pacifier in by her twin brother.
Here they are at the Linvilla Farm by the mums with my goose gord.
The three of us in "pumpkinland" - I wanted to lay the babies in a pile of pumpkins for the ultimate photo. My more safety conscious husband vetoed that idea.
Here's Jack later in the day loving his bumbo seat
Hope doesn't quite have the head control for the bumbo just yet, but we let her try it out anyway.

The above two shots were taken on a walk by Hillary who visited us a couple weekends ago. Come back soon Auntie Hill! On that same weekend, we were treated to a short but wonderful visit with Auntie Court and the entire Beyer clan. Pictures of Addison and Braden holding Hope and Jack were priceless and hopefully Court will share them with me so I can post them on the blog. (Hint hint)

Below are shots from Jack and Hope's first night of trying rice cereal in their high chairs. The feedings are going ok depending on the night. The babies have been waking up at night and earlier in the mornings demanding food lately - suggesting to us they may be ready for some solid foods, but when the spoonful of cereal is presented to them, they don't always agree that it should be placed in their mouths and then swallowed down.




Here they are hanging out together on the activity mat. Emma was trying to join in on the fun (you can see her eyes peering out from under the couch). Having the two of them together on the mat is one of my favorite things to do. They always end up holding hands, touching each other, rolling around together, or just gazing at one another. It is so cool to watch. Jack keeps wanting to have a conversation with Hope, but so far, she isn't ready to talk back at his command.

That's all for now. Check back in a few days for photos from Halloween. (I'll send out an update as who knows how long it will take me to get the photos off the camera and up on the blog!)

XOXO from all of us!