Year In The Life #12 - Giggles

One of the best parts about writing a blog is looking back at old posts and seeing all of the details that there was no way I would remember if I hadn't jotted it down.  For instance, I completely forgot that I spent an entire month writing about the funny things that happened each day with our littles! Here was the first time I got Gracie to really laugh, and of course some detail about how rough it was when we were trying to figure out a routine and the babies were refusing their bottles.  I vaguely remember those blurry days where naps were sometimes non-existent and we were experimenting for the first time with letting the babies cry. 

Here is the first time Grace pulled herself up into a stand and some detail about showing up late to daycare but how happy our babies were when we would pick them up and how much the daycare loved them. Oh, and some cute detail about one of the first times the littles actually played together (it all started with swatting at each other, I should have known we'd come to this...). ;)

Here is a post about those first tries at brushing Caleb's teeth and some detail about night duty swapping, how the babies were only out to get me, and how ridiculous I looked when trying to get the babies to smile for our 7 month photo shoot. 

There is so much laughter to remember in the past year, but I'm truly glad that I wrote so much of it down, documented it in a safe place, so that when the days, months, and years pass and those funny moments get blurry, I can look back and remember just how hard/agonizing/tiring/thrilling/beautiful/funny it all was!!!

Today, I was cracking up when I had both littles crawling up to me, trying to get into my lap, and trying to steal my smoothie away from me! They LOVE the smoothies that Ben is making us after work every day now. I've given them tiny sips of it here and there and now they're hooked.  They'll do anything to get them, especially Caleb.  And the best part about it is after I give them a sip, they'll look up at me and both have these purple mustaches and noses from where they dunked their face in the cup instead of tipping their heads back! :)

Oh, and did I mention that Grace can drink from a water bottle really well? She figured out how to close her lips on the bottle top so she doesn't just have the whole thing in her mouth and she can drink from it like a big kid! Until she gets bored of it and then pulls it away from her mouth mid-sip or drops it out of her hands without a lid on.  This is why she doesn't get full access to water bottles for many, many more months.  For now, Mommy holds it and she sips!

Also, I need to make mention that 1) the babies have been sleeping in until 5am almost every day recently and 2) the nanny has officially moved into her new apartment down in Mesa!  For the sleeping, it's hit or miss on whether they will go back to sleep after waking up at 5am.  We'll always force them to try, but sometimes it just means crying for an hour or more until it's time to get up and get going for the day. Ugh.  But I'll take that over crying at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am...

A couple of logistical things I want to document...I am working with our DDD Support Coordinator to get therapies set up for when we move down to Chandler at the beginning of January.  I have a friend who is an occupational therapist and she agreed to take on Caleb as a patient, so we're looking for physical, speech, and developmental therapists from her same company.  Cross your fingers!  And we're struggling with figuring out a few of the financial aspects of all of the health stuff from this year.  We thought that we reached our out of pocket max but we're still paying for co-pays and so many bills...not sure how that's supposed to work, but it feels like we're doing something wrong and paying more than we need to.  We also got a bill for Caleb's chromosome test that came out to over $2k...not covered apparently.  And they won't retro his long term care insurance to cover it.  So that's something I'm going to fight for a while.  Then we have to select a primary care physician for Caleb for his insurance but we're moving and I'm not sure how to go about this. I have a call into our pediatrician to get some recommendations on the best doc we should use down there- someone with connections at Barrow's for his neurologist hopefully.  I want them to communicate as well as our pedi has with the neurologist.  And I want someone who will do the additional testing on his immune system, etc, (like our pedi did) in the event that he starts to get really sick again- I don't want someone who will just say he has a cold if it's happened every week for months on end! Lots on my wish list, I know. I plan to be picky. :)

Loving our new snowman kitchen towel...

Caleb loves his sister!  But apparently he bit her really hard today and left a mark! He bites whenever he gets excited, mainly because his body gets a little spastic when he gets excited and I think his jaw just clamps like that. We'll have to work on it.

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Field Goal!

Look at those chompers

And that tongue!

This looks almost staged! :) Monkey rocker sharing!

I bet they had a blast with this today!

Gracie is doing the cutest peek-a-boo right now! All we have to say is peek-a-boo and she'll cover our eyes and wait for us to say "Where's Gracie?" and then she'll pull her hands away with a HUGE smile!