Behind Closed Doors

Silence and toddlers are not always a great mix.  On one of Grammy Linda's daycare Wednesdays she thought the girls were taking a nap but then started to hear strange noises.  When she went to open the door this is what she found.

Mattresses on the floor, beds stripped, and dress-up clothes strewn everywhere 

Got to love pirate-princess-fairies

Turns out the girls just wanted to do a little rearranging while they try on clothes.  These girls are in love with dressing up.  They can layer like no other.  I sometimes wonder if the goal is to put on as many pieces of dress up as possible.  They will often have multiple tops, and skirts, and accessories.  Less is not more in this case!

Little Swimmers

For the last year we've been taking the girls swimming on Sunday's at Children of the Sea swim school. The place is awesome and we have a lot of fun during lessons. Until age 3 the classes are parent/tot so since Andy and I are always in the pool we never get pictures, but finally we have a few. The girls have two weeks left of this session and then they graduate up to classes without parent involvement EEK. I'm nervous for that but I think the girls will do great. They are little fishes!!   During the course of the year we've had some rough times where they didn't want to swim but we just kept at it and now I think they actually enjoy it.  We also used to trade off each girl every week so they got the chance to swim with both Andy and I but recently we've been swimming with the same E and it's actually working better.  Andy swims with Emily and I swim with Ellery.

We need to add another activity for the weekends. I'm thinking of gymnastics....does anyone have any places you would recommend in Tigard or SW?  I've realized that now that the girls are 3 we've ventured into the no parent involvement necessary category....and that sounds great...I think.  I've always had these visions of sipping my latte while watching the girls lessons  and chatting with the other moms, but now that we're actually at that point I'm not sure I'm ready to let go.  ;)

 Andy and Ellery getting ready to swim

Emily walking the plank

Em in blue and Ellery in white floaties swimming!  Ellery is all by herself!  Took us almost a year to get to this point!!

Both girls showing that we don't need to hold on

Me & Em

View of the pool from the observation deck. 

Blog Books

This blog started in 2006.  I can't believe it has been 5 years.  I've documented all major events, added pictures, and have basically used it as a virtual baby book for the girls.  I've referred back to many of my early posts to help give advice to others with preemies or babies in the NICU or just to remind myself of where we started.   I've always been a little worried about what would happen if all the info was suddenly wiped out.  I've seen a few products out there that will transferred your blogs into books but wasn't sure about the final result.  Well, I finally did it.  I now have hardbound books for the years 2008 and 2009.  I used Blog2Print and was surprised how easy it was.  They literally ask for your Blogger login and BAM!  You have a book.  The quality is good and the prices are decent.  I blogged a lot in those days so each book was about $50....but to have the documented memories I think it was worth it.  My only issue is that they make it impossible to edit the layout so some of my captions from pictures are in strange places.  I'd personally like a little more control over the layout but I'm sure that will be possible in later versions.  I remember when the online photo storage companies first started the photo books and it was much more basic and inflexible compared to today.  I also found that even with spell check I still had spelling issues back in my sleep deprived days.  But honestly, I don't care that much and I sure am not going to go back through 200+ posts to correct.  Lazy.  Why yes I am.   Very soon I'll be working on my 2010 version.  Time to get caught up!

Blog Books

This blog started in 2006.  I can't believe it has been 5 years.  I've documented all major events, added pictures, and have basically used it as a virtual baby book for the girls.  I've referred back to many of my early posts to help give advice to others with preemies or babies in the NICU or just to remind myself of where we started.   I've always been a little worried about what would happen if all the info was suddenly wiped out.  I've seen a few products out there that will transferred your blogs into books but wasn't sure about the final result.  Well, I finally did it.  I now have hardbound books for the years 2008 and 2009.  I used Blog2Print and was surprised how easy it was.  They literally ask for your Blogger login and BAM!  You have a book.  The quality is good and the prices are decent.  I blogged a lot in those days so each book was about $50....but to have the documented memories I think it was worth it.  My only issue is that they make it impossible to edit the layout so some of my captions from pictures are in strange places.  I'd personally like a little more control over the layout but I'm sure that will be possible in later versions.  I remember when the online photo storage companies first started the photo books and it was much more basic and inflexible compared to today.  I also found that even with spell check I still had spelling issues back in my sleep deprived days.  But honestly, I don't care that much and I sure am not going to go back through 200+ posts to correct.  Lazy.  Why yes I am.   Very soon I'll be working on my 2010 version.  Time to get caught up!

3 Year Check up

Friday the girls had their 3 year well baby check up.  I have to say it was so boring.  No concerns, no questions, no nothing.   Boring is good when it comes to Dr appointments.   The girls are doing great.  Emily had an ear infection the week before her birthday and the last time she was sick was exactly the same time a year before with an ear infection.  Must be something about their birthdays...Both girls have had minor colds since the end of the year but honestly the fact that we hadn't seen our Dr in a year is huge for a mirco preemie.  Emily weighs 26 lbs and is 36 1/4" tall and Ellery is 29lbs and 36 3/4"tall.  I do have to say I thought for sure they'd weigh more.  I do know that the scales can be so different from place to place so I'm not convinced that is what they really weigh.  Our Dr is thrilled with their growth even if they weigh less than I believe.  The girls did get one shot and while they were excited for flu shots last fall they were PISSED after this shot.  The faces they gave me reminded me of the old days when Emily was afraid of band aids because they were associated with all the shots she'd had in her short lifetime.

3 Year Check up

Friday the girls had their 3 year well baby check up.  I have to say it was so boring.  No concerns, no questions, no nothing.   Boring is good when it comes to Dr appointments.   The girls are doing great.  Emily had an ear infection the week before her birthday and the last time she was sick was exactly the same time a year before with an ear infection.  Must be something about their birthdays...Both girls have had minor colds since the end of the year but honestly the fact that we hadn't seen our Dr in a year is huge for a mirco preemie.  Emily weighs 26 lbs and is 36 1/4" tall and Ellery is 29lbs and 36 3/4"tall.  I do have to say I thought for sure they'd weigh more.  I do know that the scales can be so different from place to place so I'm not convinced that is what they really weigh.  Our Dr is thrilled with their growth even if they weigh less than I believe.  The girls did get one shot and while they were excited for flu shots last fall they were PISSED after this shot.  The faces they gave me reminded me of the old days when Emily was afraid of band aids because they were associated with all the shots she'd had in her short lifetime.

Happy 3rd Birthday Emily & Ellery

Emily and Ellery are three!!!  We celebrated with a party last week and had a blast.  So many of our family and friends, we are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.  This was the first year the girls understood that it was their birthday.  They asked if they were going to be able to blow out a candle and before they mentioned it I thought they didn't even know about that tradition.  We had a cake for Emily and cupcakes for Ellery by request of course.  Pump It Up Jr is the best place for parties.  The kids all had a great time and the fact that it's over and done in 90 minutes is wonderful.  After having the girls 1st birthday in my house I vowed never to do that again.  The work involved on the front end and back end of the party was crazy.  It's so much easier and quite frankly more fun for everyone (kids and adults!) to go somewhere to play, eat, make a mess, and leave. PIU Jr is very proficient at the process of moving parties through the place.  They have a system and it works.  If I had to decide where to have the girls 4th party now I'd say PIU jr is our place.

Party girls showing off their new sock monkeys

Emily & Ellery at Pump It Up Jr

Birthday kiss

Ellery coming down the slide with uncle/cousin Robby

Weeeeee

Again Daddy! Let's go again!

Party room

Party room

Party room

Emily & Ellery at school on Valentines day!

Happy 3rd Birthday Emily & Ellery

Emily and Ellery are three!!!  We celebrated with a party last week and had a blast.  So many of our family and friends, we are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.  This was the first year the girls understood that it was their birthday.  They asked if they were going to be able to blow out a candle and before they mentioned it I thought they didn't even know about that tradition.  We had a cake for Emily and cupcakes for Ellery by request of course.  Pump It Up Jr is the best place for parties.  The kids all had a great time and the fact that it's over and done in 90 minutes is wonderful.  After having the girls 1st birthday in my house I vowed never to do that again.  The work involved on the front end and back end of the party was crazy.  It's so much easier and quite frankly more fun for everyone (kids and adults!) to go somewhere to play, eat, make a mess, and leave. PIU Jr is very proficient at the process of moving parties through the place.  They have a system and it works.  If I had to decide where to have the girls 4th party now I'd say PIU jr is our place.

Party girls showing off their new sock monkeys

Emily & Ellery at Pump It Up Jr

Birthday kiss

Ellery coming down the slide with uncle/cousin Robby

Weeeeee

Again Daddy! Let's go again!

Party room

Party room

Party room

Emily & Ellery at school on Valentines day!

March for Babies 2011

Mark your calendars, the 2011 March of Dimes March for Babies event will be on April 30th.  This will be our 3rd year and I expect it to be just as fun as it has been the last two years.  Team Singer Twins has such awesome supporters, we are so lucky!  We have a huge team of people that come out and walk with us and we have a wonderful group of financial supporters.  Because of this we've raised the 6th highest amount of money from a family team in Oregon for the last two years in a row.  I thought for sure we'd move up to 5th place last year, but we were just a few dollars away.  Regardless, the support is amazing and appreciated.  

Last year we had a new addition to our team.  Joey Vander Meide is another miracle that we met while in the NICU who's life has been a truly amazing journey.  We're excited to have his family join us again this year.  Team Singer Twins raises money in honor of three amazing miracle babies who have all just turned 3 and are taking the world by storm.  These kiddos are going to make a difference in the world.  Mark my words!  

I've been spending all my fundraising energy on the main Team Singer Twins page we're up to $1200!!!  I need to get cracking on my own page.  www.marchforbabies.org/hcummings13


Can't wait to see you there!!