My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

I don’t think it will be long before the girls are crawling.  They’re starting to rock back and forth on their hands and knees, as if they’re revving their engines.  I’m hoping they take their time gearing up! 

I always thought that rosy cheeks were a sign of good health…

Not necessarily. 

When I plucked Susie out of her crib this morning, I was surprised to see that her cheeks and nose were bright red, as if she had applied Halloween make-up in order to be a cross between a clown and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  I concluded she must have rubbed her face against something in the crib, and assumed it would fade as the morning wore on.  However, I knew something was amiss when she lost her entire breakfast immediately after eating.  Becky does that about once a week (just to make sure I don’t forget how to do laundry), so I hoped that Susie was just temporarily channeling her sister’s sensitive stomach. 

I dressed them for church in new clothes from Jim’s Aunt Mary, and wouldn’t you know, Susie’s cheeks matched her outfit:

She acted normally all through church, but then she lost her lunch.  Literally.   And later her dinner.  And her dessert.  So the poor thing hasn’t been able to keep anything down all day.  Thankfully, she’s not running a fever, and the doctor on call told me it’s probably just a stomach bug.  I’m grateful that she doesn’t seem too distressed by the illness.  In fact, she had enough energy this evening to play with her sister.  Becky thought that maybe rolling over on top of Susie would make her feel better.

Hopefully my little apple-cheeked dumpling will be back to normal soon.  See, she’s telling me that she’s sure she’ll feel at least “a little bit” better by tomorrow. 

Have you ever seen anything more hilarious than these high heels the girls are modeling?  Jim’s mom’s good friend Becky bestowed these fantastic shoes on the girls while I was still in the hospital on bedrest.  I remember unwrapping them and laughing so hard tears came to my eyes.  At the time, I couldn’t imagine the girls ever being big enough to wear these fancy heels (I actually couldn’t imagine the girls at all, given that my only glimpses at their cute faces had been via grainy ultrasound at that point, and I could barely tell their noses from their kneecaps!).  Now, the girls are acting so grown-up, I figured it was only fitting that they wear their grown-up shoes!  The pictures don’t do the shoes justice – they actually have soft little pointy stiletto heels.  I would have taken more photos, but the shoes are still a bit big, so they were repeatedly tossed into the air as the girls vigorously shook their legs in an effort to see what on earth I had placed on their feet.  They seemed more amused by watching the shoes fly across the room than by wearing them.  Either way, they had me in stitches! 

Mark your calendars, everyone – today is the day that Becky rolled from her back to her tummy!  We’ve known for a few weeks now that she was getting close, since she would roll onto her side but just couldn’t finish the job.  Well, maybe the problem was insufficient motivation.  I recently bought a new book for the girls, and today I set it beside Becky while she was playing on her back.  She spotted it out of the corner of her eye and started reaching for it.  She stretched and stretched and wiggled her fingertips and just couldn’t quite grasp it from her supine position.  So, she swung both her legs up into the air and over toward the book until she was lying on her side with her arm pinned under her.  She huffed and puffed, and perhaps spurred on by my frantic cheering, she finally wriggled her way over until she was on her tummy!  Triumphant, she gave the book a good thwack with her hand and sent it flying.  I guess she views books more as punching bags than mental stimulation at this point.  I hope she long continues to consider books to be worth reaching for!

Here’s Becky reaching for the book once she’s already on her tummy:

I love Becky’s exultant grin, now that she’s mastered the back-to-front maneuver:

And what, you may ask, was Susie doing this whole time?  She was keeping an eye on the proceedings, memorizing Becky’s every move.  This way, when she’s good and ready, she’ll know just what to do!

Susie found the whole affair quite amusing.  While Becky was on her stomach, she let out a giant belch, and Susie actually laughed!  I’m afraid Susie’s love-affair with bodily functions is only getting started, if she’s anything like her dad!

It was quite a day! 

Yesterday was a momentous day.  It was my first time back at the office (as an employee, rather than a visitor) since May 15, 2008.  May 15th was a Thursday, and when I said goodbye to my co-workers for a long weekend, I fully expected to be back at work the following week.  I left multiple projects partly finished on my desk, I had post-it notes stuck all over my computer with reminders of tasks to be accomplished, I even left my raincoat in the office closet.  Little did I know that my life would change the very next day, and I wouldn’t be back at work for over nine months.  Friday, May 16th, Jim and I drove to the hospital for an ultrasound appointment.  It was a cool, rainy morning, and I remember anxiously awaiting warmer days so I could wear all my adorable new maternity clothes to work.  Needless to say, I never got to wear those outfits outside the hospital.  The next time I stepped foot outside, it was August and I was no longer in need of maternity clothes (well, that’s not quite true, since it took me a while to lose my twin pregnancy weight…but I didn’t get nearly as much use out of those clothes as I had planned!). 

Anyway, my return to the office was long overdue.  I was loathe to leave the girls even for the few hours I would be at work, but I was extremely thankful that Jim’s mom was willing and able to watch them for me.  I knew they were in good hands.  I was surprised at how emotional I became saying goodbye to them yesterday morning.  I was only going to be gone for about six hours, but that was the longest stretch we had been apart.  I had never missed a feeding before, and I was worried about how they’d do without me.  Needless to say, the separation bothered me much more than them.  They behaved beautifully for my mother-in-law, and didn’t seem to miss me at all.  My mom asked me if I minded the fact that the girls thrived in my absence, and I can honestly say that I was thrilled.   I perhaps wouldn’t be so happy about their independence if I anticipated leaving them frequently – I don’t want to be replaced, after all!   But I am so thankful that I don’t have to work full-time, that I have family to baby-sit the girls, and that my employer has been very flexible with my work schedule.  I only plan to work two to four days a month, and this arrangement works perfectly.  The girls get to have a fun day with their grandma, and I get to have a day where I exercise parts of my brain that do not involve the memorization of “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?” and get to socialize with girls who are unlikely to burst into tears from fatigue or hunger (well, perhaps after a really long, hard day at the office, a few tears of frustration might be shed, but at least I wouldn’t be called upon to sing to anybody for soothing purposes!).