Merry Chistmas!

I think, by far, that the Twinlser's were the best gift that I received in 2009.Merry Christmas & Happy Hollidays to you and yours... Have a safe & happy New Year!

-tinny out

the Motherland

Several weeks back, Rach and I ventured north for a family reunion. We went with Nate and Whitney back to my hometown of Wauseon. This is the place where I grew up and spent the first 18 years of my life... the motherland.

My parents do not live in Wauseon anymore either, so this was a great opportunity to spend some time with them and introduce some of my extended family to the Twinsler's. This was also the longest that we have tried to travel with the girls (normally about 3 hours). So, thanks to the patience of Nate and Whitney, we set out with 2 cars, 4 adults, 2 Twinsler's, 3 dogs and 3 bikes for an adventure.

Everything went pretty well in terms of travel, and it was great to see a bunch of family that I avn't seen in literally years. The funniest thing that we heard (often) was "Wow, Ava looks just like Nick!" - poor girl.


-tinny out

Halloween

Better late than never! Here are a few pics of the Twinlser's first Halloween.
Here are the girls posing with their cousins Grace, Jocey and Grant. Our plan to have Ella be a bear for Halloween didn't quite go as planned. Rachel and I always call her Ella bear, so we thought that it was a perfect fit, then, a couple weeks before the holiday, we tried on the costumes and it didn't fit because the girls have grown so much. So, a little last minute switch-a-roo and Ava was a bear, and Ella was a penguin.
Here are Rach and I with the girls.

-tinny out

The Twinsler's First Race

A couple weeks back, the Twinsler's came with Rachel to see daddy race. Grandma and papaw came as well to watch - OK, lets be real, they came to see the girls...Here is Ella telling daddy good job after the - "Don't get any mud on me!"

-tinny out

Ella wants to say hi...

She has been talking for a while and I finally captured it on tape.

What we've been up to.....

Stay-at-home mom
Well, this is my third week taking care of the girls full-time and it is going well. The first week was a little rough as I was trying to get them to nap at the same time without waking each other up. Ava really likes to nap for two hours twice a day and Ella prefers three one hour naps. This means that mommy only gets a break for 1 hour in the morning. We have been having so much fun hanging with friends, walking/running with Giro and shopping. In my time at home I have realized that their are two inventions that I could not live without, the running stroller and the baby swing. Below are pictures of both.

The girls in the running stroller

They like it when Whitney runs with us

Ella in the swing
Ava Swinging

Go Bearcats!!
For the past couple of years my family's had season tickets to UC football and this year is proving to be very exciting!! The twinsler's don't get to go to the games, but they have a lot of fun hanging out with Katie while mom and dad get time away.

My niece and nephew cheering for the Bearcats!!

Hanging with the neighbors
This summer we have gotten the opportunity to hang out with and get to know our neighbors. We love having so many kids around and it is probably the only reason we continue to live in our extremely small house. Below is a picture of the twinslers hanging with our neighbor Lilah.

Dedication

The Twinslers and their cousin, Jocey were dedicated at church on Sunday. Here are some pictures:

The Rindels Family

Ava



Ella and Papaw

either the Twinslers are...

... going to be Oompa Loompa's for Halloween...
or they started eating carrots this week.

-tinny out

Ava wants to say hello...

Happy Girls

6 months is such a fun age. The girls love to talk and smile!!! We had our doctors visit this week and the girls are getting soooo big. Ava is now 13# 9oz and 24 1/4in long. Ella is 13# and 24 inches long. I think Ella is going to catch Ava soon:

Here are some recent pictures:

Daddy and the girls

Happy Ava

Ella Talking

6 months

Its now been over 6 months since the Twinslers were born. Sunday was their 1/2 year birthday. They are both doing really well. They are starting to "talk" and imitate you when you are talking to them, especially Ava. They have been sleeping through the night pretty consistently, and are eating like champs. The biggest milestone that they have reached is that of the introduction of cereal. They are 3 day into it, and I am not sure either one knows what to make of it yet. Here are the girls working on their head control in their Bumbo seats. Ava decided to make it an action shot. When the cereal comes out, its liek a "Got Milk" photo shoot up in here! -tinny out

Funny Story

So, Rachel nudges me this AM at about 5:00. I hear baby noises in the background which is not unusual for our house, obviously. Rachel says, listen to that, "It's Ava, and she's cracking herself up!"

I groggely hop up out of bed and stick my head into the girls room to find Ava semi-awake cooing and "talking" like there is no tomorrow, smiling and laughing away - at 5:00am in the morning! It was so cute. I kinda wish I was more awake to remember it...

-tinny out

Did you miss us?

Sorry for being all MIA on all you folks, but the last month or so has thrown a lot of life at the 'ol Twinsler clan. Fortunately, the twins have been doing great. Both are over 10 lbs now and are starting to smile and show emotions- other than crying ;)

Through a crazy series of events, I lost my job, and Rachel went back to work full-time for a while, offering us both a very in depth look at what its like to walk in the others shoes. I just accepted a job offer, so now we get to figure out what the new normal looks like!

Above is a pic for the girls taken by a friend of ours, Amanda. She did a great job on the ~4 month old shots, didn't she?

-tinny out

Discharged!

Today we went back to Good Sam for a checkup. Ava now weighs 9lbs 7oz, and Ella is a robust 8lbs 13oz, what chunkers!

The best news we received was that we were officially discharged, and as long as there are not any new problems, we'll not head back to the hospital for 5 more months... who-hoo!
-tinny out

The Many Faces of Ella: Part II

Ella was being especially photogenic this past weekend, so here are a few shots that cover the range of emotion that is Ella...
-tinny out

Sunday Morning Update

Sorry for the lack of posts, but for some reason or other we seem to have less free time lately. The whole family is healthy and the girls are only getting up once a night now, w/ Ava having slept through till 6:00am twice. Who-Hoo!

I have always been a problem solver, trying to see causes and effects and how to predict and cause a desired outcome. The Twinsler's have brought out that quality in Rachel as well, especially w/ trying to get them to sleep through the night. Our latest strategy (that has been working pretty well), is to keep them up after their 8:00pm feeding till about 9:30 or 10:00 and then feed them and put them down. They usually do not eat much at this feeding, but it fills their bellies and gives them sweet dreams.

The girls are in a pretty cool stage right now. They have both started to be more alert and aware of their surroundings, being able to follow objects with their eyes. Good stuff. Here are a few random pictures of the stars of this blog.

Ava striking a pose during bath time
Disgruntled Ella post bathThe Girls at 3 months
Ella looking CUTE!
-tinny out

Good Times!

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past weeks. There has been a lot of "life" going on so we haven't been able to (read > made time) to blog. The girls are doing great. Ella is over 8.5 lbs, and Ava is porking in at over 9 lbs. They are just little people. They have started to become more aware of their surroundings and are able to follow you w/ their eyes... so cool!

They are both now on meds for acid relfux which is really helping. We thought that Ava was just a fussy girl, but the doc informed us that she doesn't really have anything in her life that should be making her cry every waking hour, so she thought that we'd give the acid reflux medicine a try. Up till this point, Ava never really was awake w/o crying or feeding, so now it is awesome to just have her be able to set in your lap w/o crying.

Rachel is the best mom in the world, so to celebrate Mother's Day (which was kind a blur), Rachel and I are going to see Brad Paisley in concert in June.

-tinny out

Babies cry a lot

Yesterday was the girls 3 month birthday. We celebrated with huge bottle of fortified breast milk, who-hooo! Overall, things are going well. Things were pretty rough a week or so back, as the girls had us pretty worn down, but we tweaked some of our nighttime feeding strategy and had a few restful nights.

Several nights this week, including last night, Ava has been trying to have a party in her crib... Last night, she cried that "oh my God the world is ending" kinda cry from 11:30pm till I fed her early at 1:15am. After that feed, she has done pretty well, but seems to have handed the baton to her sister Ella. Ella is usually very content, so this ongoing, inconsolable crying is out of the ordinary.

I know that babies can cry a lot, and that is really the only way that they have to communicate to the world. Normal crying is one thing, but I do not think that I have experienced anything worse than not being able to console your crying child. It pretty much sucks.

All you folks that have kids are laughing, I know, and all my friends w/o kids are like huh?

We'll get some more pics up soon.

-tinny out

Life Update

Life is pretty good. We had my parents in town this weekend which was neat to see as they had not visited since very early on in the hospital. Grandma helped Rachel w/ the girls and around the house and Grandpa helped me lay some mulch in the yard. The twins are doing well. The doctors gave us the OK to start letting them stretch one of the night time feedings which is great, but confusing. Ava sleeps for 3.5 hours and then wants fed, so what do you do w/ Ella after that? She is still sleeping, but will most likely wake in less than an hour, but maybe she’ll sleep longer? Then the girls will be on separate schedules, and then what do you do the next mourning? This is all very confusing, and Rachel and I being the planners that we are can easily drive ourselves nutty!

The girls will have been home for 4 weeks already on Tuesday, and will be 3 months old on Saturday…. crazy!

-tinny out

March of Dimes

Before I get to the march of dimes I want to let everyone know that today is my due date. The girls are finally 40 weeks!!! We want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers during the past 11 weeks. We are very blessed!!!

Ava 11 weeks ago-2#12oz
Ava today-7#1oz
Ella 11 weeks ago-2#6ozElla today-6# 9oz
I have been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks, so I apologize for the late notice.

This weekend in Cincinnati is the March of Dimes walk. This organization is dedicated to preventing and a better understanding of prematurity. My friends at work (Children's Hospital) have set up a team in honor of the girls and I thought I would give you an opportunity to join our team. If you would like to donate or walk sign up online at www.marchforbabies.org, select join a team. Our team name is CCHMC- Twinslers. No pressure, just thought I would make you aware of this great cause.

Doctors Appointments

This preemie thing is a full-time job. This was the week of doctors.

Tuesday we had a follow-up with the eye doctor, which is our least favorite thing to do. The devise used to keep their eyes open makes them extremely unhappy. As far as the results, neither one of their eyes have matured completely, but Ava's look better than Ella's. The doctor thinks that Ella may not have peripheral vision in her right eye. The eyes are very confusing to me and hard to explain. We follow-up with them in four weeks.

Wednesday we had to follow-up with the developmental team at Good Sam and the ear doctor for Ava. The developmental team seemed to be very happy with the girls progress. The physical therapist could tell that both of the girls like to spend a lot of time laying on their right ear, so we now have to make sure they lay on their left ear for 20 minutes per day. OPPS!! We are still having some choking issues feeding Ava, so we have to follow-up with them in three weeks. As far as the ear doctor goes, Ava still hasn't passed her hearing screen, so we are following up with her in three weeks as well. The pediatrician is not very concerned about this.

Thursday we had our second appointment with the pediatrician. He was very happy with their weight gain. Ava now weighs 7lbs, 1oz and is 19 inches long. Ella now weighs 6lbs, 9ozs and is 18 inches long. It looks like Ava is going to be tall like her daddy and Ella is going to be short like her mommy.

Here are a few pics from this week:
This is my way of getting Ava to stay on her left ear.
Tummy time with Ella. Usually she does not enjoy tummy time this much.
Hope you all are having a good weekend.

-Rachel

It’s not the size of your stroller that counts...

...Its how you use it.

Don’t act like you are not impressed by the size of this rig. It had to be slightly modified to accept our car seats, but this bad boy is how we cart our girls around. That’s right, 68” from front of the stroller to Rachel's heals.
-tinny out

Happy Easter!

Although a tad belated, the Twins wanted to wish you all a happy Easter!

-tinny out

American Idol 2025?

I got puked on

Yesterday we took the twins to Children’s for a follow up eye exam. Although the exam took a very long time, it was pretty uneventful. It took so long that we needed to feed the girls at the hospital, so I started feeding Ella in the waiting room, and then continued to feed as we walked down to the cafeteria. Once we sat down, the ever content Ella let loose w/ the biggest, most aggressive vomit that I have ever witnessed. So, I went back to work w/ the look and smell of fortified breast milk on my dress shirt and slacks. Mmmmm.

-tinny out

Family

Aunt Reggie and Jocey came to visit the girls on Tuesday. It's hard to believe that Ava and Ella are two weeks older than their cousin.
Ella wasn't very happy to have her cousin that close. Check out the chins on that girl!! -Rachel

2 Month Birthday

Here are a few pictures from the girls' two month birthday this past Wednesday.
-tinny out