April already???

I can't believe it is already April!  My last update was in January and this might be the longest I've gone between updates.  For most of the 3 months, I really haven't taken many/any photos of Hope and Jack.  Oh well -- for most of that time, we didn't do much that was photo worthy, yet been busy at the same time.  If another person tells me that baby #3 (Baby Trey as we call him/her, a nickname coincidentally coined separately by both Kevin and me on the same day) will have even less photos, get lost in the shuffle and end up being a tough independent little cookie , I might permanently enter depression city.  And the comments I receive from others who tell me how much busier I am going to be are really not helping either.  Seriously, I really think it is not possible for things to get any more chaotic and that we will take on this new addition in stride.  If you think otherwise for us, that is fine, but really, give me a little peace and let me spend these next 11 weeks in denial.  :-)

A lot has happened that I want to update you all on with my post so sorry in advance for how long this one's gonna be . . .

Hope has made a ton of strides in her walking!  In therapy, she will walk unassisted all over our house.  Out of therapy, we are still working on convincing her that walking is a better way to get from point A to point B.  We are told that this is pretty normal/common for kids to only do things in therapy and that we just need to convince/force/encourage her to walk as much as we can. 

Here's a video showing off how much progress she's made in the last few months since my last update and video of her some of her very first steps.  She also shows off another new skill at the end - clapping.  Jack provides the percussion during this video, her therapist Denita is singing, and her nanny Danna is there to catch her at the end.  

Most of you already know the big news of our household -- the 2013 State Championship won by the Lower Merion Aces and assistant coach Kevin! 

Mid-November to March 23 is a long high school basketball season, but if they are going to extend the season by going deep into the playoffs, ending up with a big win and gold medals around their necks is definitely the way to do it.  I was fortunate to get to attend some of the big games during the playoffs - with many thanks to my dad for being my game partner in crime with and without the twins at many of the games and to Kevin's parents & Cousin Kate for helping to babysit for some of the evening games when the twins were much better off in their cribs than in the stands with all of the crazed Aces Nation.  There has been a ton of coverage of their win defeating a team they'd lost to 3 times in the last 2 years and who hadn't lost to another PA team since 2010.  Kevin's team has been named "SE PA basketball team of the year" and ended up ranked #1 in the state and #21 in the country.  If interested, I encourage you to check out this link from the head coach which sums up the magnitude of the win.  Also, check out a couple of my favorite photos of Coach G and the team.  Yesterday they had the celebration parade through a part of Lower Merion.  Here are a few pics from that event as well:

You can't see how cute they look in their Aces tees.   Jack wanted to know where the horses were -- something about seeing all the carriages in New Orleans (more about that below) made him think that parades should have horses in them.

 Coach G sporting his gold medal

 Coming off of the high of basketball season, instead of relaxing and recovering, we decided to take the entire family (including Granddad) down to New Orleans for a wedding of close friends of Kevin's.  I am happy to say that overall the trip went very well - perhaps all of my planning and worrying paid off.  Hope and Jack took their first plane flights and us the three adults tried out all sorts of different strategies to keep them happy, entertained, and quiet .  The wedding events were a lot of fun and I am happy that both Kevin and I were able to attend.  Many many thanks to my dad for coming with us.  The kids really enjoyed so much QT with their granddad and both Kevin and I know that the trip would have been so much harder  (impossible?) without all of his help.  Here are some highlights from the trip:

Travel buddies on the flight down

Flying in comfort - Hope took after her father and slept on 2 of the four flights!  Nice work pretty lady!!!

Somehow my dad got Jack up in the cockpit for a photos op after we'd landed.

 He didn't sleep a wink on any of our four flights, but fell asleep immediately upon getting in the taxi and our car after the flights. 

One of the highlights of the trip for my dad was his return to Felix's for oysters. 

 For me, it was definitely our two trips to Cafe Du Monde.  Luckily Hope and Jack didn't seem so interested in the beignets so I only had to share with my dad and Kevin.  :-)

 Relatively well behaved for our appearance at the post-wedding brunch. 

 My pretty girl and a walk in the park with her dad

 

Waiting for the streetcar

 

Impromptu discovery of baby  goats at a farmers marker near our hotel

This is a big week for us.  We have to say goodbye to all of Hope's therapists as she starts a new preschool program the following week which will include all of her therapies.  We are excited for her to start school and to hear what her new therapists recommend, but will be sad to say goodbye to all the wonderful people who have been coming to see us every week.  Jack will definitely miss all of them as he has been an integral part of Hope's therapies and has thrived with all the extra attention they give him. 

Speaking of Jack, I wanted to share a couple photos of my little man and his crazy hair.  We never did find the time during basketball season to fit in a hair cut so things got a little crazy.  I love his curls so much whereas Kevin would prefer a more cleaner shorter look.  Right now Jack is quite obsessed with the song Kokomo.  No he's not seen Cocktail, but discovered it in a Muppets video that Kevin's parents have and well, he sings it quite a lot and usually on the loud side.  It's hilarious.  I haven't gotten it on video yet and need to. 

 Here's a shot post-hair cut while in New Orleans, so you can all rest assured that the wild hair situation has been tamed for now . . .

Finally, just wanted to remind everyone that the date for the Angelman Syndrome Foundation National Walk is May 18th.  We'll be walking again at the Philadelphia/Cherry Hill site and invite everyone to join us.  Here is the link to register to walk (don't forget to join Team Hope) and here is the link if you'd like to donate to support the ASF.  We've had record fundraising numbers and been one of the largest teams at the Philly walk the past two years.  We hope to do that again this year, so please donate and if you can, come join us on May 18th. 

Holidays 2012 Wrap Up Part II and a BIG announcement

Here are a few additional pictures/stories from the days around Christmas. 

Puzzles were a HUGE hit with Jack this year.  Here he is with two of his new favorites.  

 Hope and Granddad checking out the holiday train exhibit at a local museum.

 Our happy girl on Christmas morning

 YUM!

Jack must have wanted to get to the presents under the tree and that is why he is not sharing in our holiday joy in this shot. 

Here's Jack watching the Grinch.  We didn't do such a good job with selling Santa Claus and all the presents he'd be brining, but we were all about the Christmas music, movies, and books.  Jack's favorite songs were Frosty the Snowman, The Twelve Days of Christmas, a version of Sleigh Ride sung by Sesame Street characters, and the Little Drummer Boy.  I can't count the number of mornings he wanted to watch the Christmas Thomas the Train and Mickey Mouse Club House episodes, as well as the above mentioned Grinch movie and book.  I've packed away the books so he's stopped asking to read them, but I can't seem to get him over the music.  Most nights while I am making dinner, he begs me to pull out the laptop so he can hear "Ernie" (Sleigh Ride) and the "First Day of Christmas" (12 days).  We have a book from my childhood called "The Christmas Tree that Stayed Up All Year."  Well, I think we may be the family who listens to Christmas music all year.  :-)

 

 I think I took this picture of Hope the day after Christmas.  She's become a bit of a climber and I found her sitting in the blocks. Getting out wasn't as easy for her as getting in, but I was impressed.

 

 One of Hope's gifts was balls to turn a laundry basket into a ball pit.  Jack is also a huge fan though we learned quickly that it only takes him seconds before all of the balls are out of the basket and spread across our entire down stairs.

 Jack also got a rolly Thomas backpack from my brother which he loves pulling around.  We tried it out on his back, but it made him look like too much of a big boy for me! Such a sweet photo with his dad though.

Here he is snuggling with said back pack in the car on our way home from my brother's.

Unfortunately for Kevin and the rest of ND nation, cute photos in ND t-shirts did not help the Irish on game night!  Sorry Daddy, but we did our part.  :(

Last Thursday was a big day for Hope and the rest of us.  Here is a video with her physical therapist taking some of her first few steps on her own! 

As if all of that wasn't enough, now . . . on to the big announcement!  Change is coming to our family.  Here's how Hope and Jack reacted to the news . .

Actually I don't think they have a clue that they are going to have a baby sister or brother arriving by the end of June.  It will be enough of an adjustment for both of them at that point, there is no need to start the panic just yet.  :-)  For now, they can just look cute in their t-shirts.

 So, yup, our family is expanding by one.  Kevin and I are pretty excited and things are so far so good.  I am in the midst of my 2nd trimester and happily feeling great.  The beginning was rather rough, in part, I think because I wasn't able to sleep away all hours not at work.  Hope and Jack still wake up the same time every morning and are waiting at the door when I get home from work ready for puzzle building, mommy hugs and of course, dinner.  It's taken us awhile to spread the news and I apologize for not having the time, energy, and motivation to call everyone personally.   I wanted to make sure my few loyal blog readers got the news as early as most. 

Holidays 2012 Part 1

The holidays have past, its been a couple months since my last update, and here we are welcoming in 2013.  It's a quiet night for our family and that is fine by me.  Both kids are asleep, there is a fire in our fireplace, and Kevin and I are watching Return of the Jedi for what may be the thousandth time.  It seems like a good time to get organized and finally share some pictures and stories.

As I may have complained here in the past, it is very hard to capture a good picture of both Hope and Jack at the same time.  They are both so busy and on the move and one of them is always reaching for the camera or my phone whenever I try to get them to smile simultaneously.  Mid November, we turned to a professional with the hope of some good Xmas card photos and an updated Hope/Jack duo shot for the grandparents' Xmas gifts.

Here are some of my favorites.  Jack was a handful that afternoon.  A lot of the shots are of him running away from us and the camera . . . so I was very pleased with the outcome.  Many thanks Bonnie!

 This one (below) was my second choice for the back of our Xmas card.  If you click on the picture, it will get larger and you can see how cute Hopie is.  Not that all the other pictures don't give off that impression as well . . . while Jack was running around like the crazy two year old he is, Hope decided she really liked our photographer Bonnie and was a smiling little princess.

From this, you would think it would be easy to get the two of them to sit nicely next to each other on a park bench.  Trust me . . . it's not!

 Classic Jack

 This might be the only time he smiled upon our request the entire shoot.  It's the best smile ever so totally worth it!

 This was our pick for the grandparents shot. 

The month of December started off with a bit of traveling for me.  I attended my first Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics Gala in Chicago.  One of my Colby BFFs Hillary met me there from Seattle to act as be my date.  We had an awesome weekend in my old city and a lot of fun getting to meet some other Angelman parents from all over the country.  Deep dish pizza, brunch at Nookies, Wildfire steaks, and so much more -- the perfect start to the holiday season!

Here we are all dolled up for the gala.

 Here's Hill after a successful night at the silent auction.  Who doesn't need a Kate Spade tennis racquet bag?  Especially if its benefiting a good cause and everything!!!  Thanks Hill!

We found a Santa at the NICU reunion party and opted for a quick photo.  Kevin decided we not traumatize Hope like last year (click here) so I joined the picture to keep things calm.  Jack didn't know what was going on, but does look awfully cute. Next year, we'll work on teaching him that this guy in the red suit is the one who brings all the gifts under the tree . . .

Just a cute candid of my clan after the NICU party

My annual tradition of Xmas PJs . . . drinking their milk = only time they are both sitting still.

Keep your eyes out for Holidays 2011 Part # which I hope to get up later this week.  I have a few additional pictures and stories from our actual Xmas celebrations to share.

Hurricane Sandy update and some Halloween pics

A five day weekend is as good of an excuse as any to get caught up on my blog updates.  As many of you know, the greater Philadelphia area was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy so Kevin and I have had a few days off and home with Hope & Jack.  We were very fortunate to only lose power for an hour or so on Monday and just have a few tree branches to deal with in our yard.  That is quite a contrast from our beloved Jersey Shore and many of our friends in the greater NJ/NYC area so we are very grateful.  Kevin will return to LM today though his students get another day off.  I'm off again as J&J is still putting things back together.  Their headquarters are in North Jersey so I'm not surprised that most facilities do not have power and the overall network is a mess.  SEPTA is back running so I'm hoping that our nanny makes it to Havertown today so I can hide and get some more stuff accomplished. 

I posted these photos to facebook earlier today and wanted to get them on the blog too as I know many of you are not facebook users.  We had them taken a couple weeks ago by a mom from my multiples club who is an aspiring photographer and was offering mini-photo sessions in costumes at a local park.  I think Halloween has not been postponed in Havertown so maybe the twins will make it back into these outfits tonight, but at least I have the photos!!!  Neither one really knows what Halloween is yet and they don't get much exposure to candy so I'm not sure they'll notice if we don't trick or treat???  Does that make us bad parents???  Jack is most recently OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse Club House and has been watching the Halloween episode daily, but I don't think he's made the connection with the day in the park and his Elmo suit. Could Hopie be a more adorable lady bug?