Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Twin Christening Weekend, Vol. II


The christening pictures will be all jumbled up chronologically because it's the last week of preschool, so there is no time to cut and paste them into the correct order!

Dave holding Hadley

Dapper Anders

Proud Grandmom and Grandpop

Uncle Kai and Aunt Jean holding godson Anderson

Three wonderful, beautiful cousins


Father Steve baptizes Hadley


Bridget wanted to be close to the action



Anders is baptized

Both babies were calm and wide-eyed throughout
Uncle Christian and his baby Emma
Mamp with Finn and Bridget

The Great Willsby

The Colantoni crew

The Philly Noons

Uncle Kai and Aunt Jen

Cousin love

Uncle Chris with potential future daughter-in-law Hadley
Bridget in the dress Will picked out for her :-)

Babies L to R: Emma Bellefontaine, Hadley, Anderson, William McGinn

Auntie Kerry, Emma, Dave and Bridget (her goddaughter)

Bridget loves baby Emma


Uncle Jay and goddaughter Hadley

Auntie Lo and Uncle Chris with baby John
Eleven cousins!

The whole (Noon)  family
(missing cousin Kylie)

Almost the whole (Freeman-Solman) family
(my sister's family hadn't arrived yet)



Monday, June 2, 2014

Twin Christening Weekend, Vol. I: Together Again

Finny and Anders say "Welcome, family!"

Just us girls
Cousins Brendan, Michael and Will
Megan holding Hadley
Uncle Kai and Bridget

Jenna, Finn, Will and Brendan examining hockey stickers

Jenna, Brianna, Finn and Bridget mesmerized by the phone


Lots of love for Uncle Kai

Jenna

Like godfather, like godson

Grandpop and Anders, together at last!


Cousins dinner

The (big) boys

Emma holding Anders

Silly Uncle Kai!

All ears at the baptism rehearsal



Aunt Jean and Hadley

Aunt Jean and her godson

The twins with all four godparents (very color-coordinated, too)!

Aunt Jean and Uncle Kai with godson Anderson

Auntie Lo and Uncle Jay with goddaughter Hadley

Uncle Jay and Hadley match!


Grandmom holds Anders!

Snuggle time with Emma


Grandmom works her magic on sleepy Hadley

Bridget's best buddy

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Middle Child

One thing I never worried about when I found out I was having twins (and I worried about just about everything else) was Bridget's place in the family. She was only thirteen months old when she accompanied me to that fateful ultrasound, but I already knew she'd be a glass-half-full middle child. Wants to rule the roost? Order the twins around. Feels like tagging along? Older brothers are happy to include you. (Although often she rules the roost in both directions, let's be honest.)

And sometimes now I feel I have to force myself NOT to give Bridget too much attention, because at this moment in time, tougher naps notwithstanding*, she is my first girl baby at my favorite age and she is SCRUMPTIOUS.

Recently Bridge has been reversing "who/what" (and their related pronouns) and "for/with." Not just confusing them, but reversing them consistently. At the train station the other day, she saw someone she (at least thought she) recognized--a stranger to us--and shouted "I REMEMBER THAT! I REMEMBER THAT!" while pointing excitedly at the woman. I thought it would be overkill to explain to this politely smiling stranger that she constantly asks "What's that?" referring to people and "Who's that?" referring to inanimate objects...!

And the for/with swap kills me--she'll say "Bridgie come a-runnin' for Mama?" meaning she wants to do my run with me, or "Daddy open my cup, drink last bits with Bridgie?" meaning she wants him to unscrew the lid of her straw sippy for her. It's delightful.

Here is Bridget modeling some of her summer duds (FINALLY!), all hand-me-downs from various generous relatives and family friends. When I say modeling, I mean modeling:











*Two days so far of success with: snack right before nap, milk and a story in her room right after the green light goes off on her alarm clock, then snack downstairs while she continues to wake up. Today if all goes well, I can start calling it a pattern per Ceci's three-day paradigm!

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Bridget's Naps: Age Two

A while ago, we had to move Bridget's nap from one or one-thirty to two; this way, we had a better chance of getting her to sleep a full two hours, and if she woke up earlier than that, at least it was not a huge gap between wake-up at 3:30 and bedtime.

It worked great for a while, but recently she's started to wake up in a bit of a sullen mood...and it goes downhill from there. As a baby, Bridget always woke up in a good mood, so this is startling in its total toddler-style intensity.

I've been trying to feed her immediately after her nap, but it's often not soon enough, aka, a straw in her mouth the second her eyes open. Today she did what we've warned her about on multiple occasions "if you keep making yourself cry": she threw up a little, after she [WARNING: GROSSNESS TO FOLLOW] gagged on her own snot.

So the next step to head off this behavior, which we suspect is related to low blood sugar, is to feed her just before nap--something with a little peanut butter or cheese so her levels don't spike or plummet while she sleeps. Hopefully it brings our girl a little closer to her typical sunny mood in the afternoon: