Babies, Baths, & Brand New Food

Now that the boys are 5 months old we have started giving them cereal. I remember doing this with Zoe Scout and somehow I had forgotten what a mess it makes.















Both boys seemed intrigued at first and swallowed the first few bites but then Jude started spitting out every bite.....

























....while Cort eventually stopped opening his mouth altogether.















They did both manage to get the cereal all over themselves and Cort rubbed it all over the side of his head.

It was clearly bath time and since Colin was home and we could do it together, we decided to try bathing all three of them at the same time. Zoe Scout was ecstatic. Since the day we brought them home from the hospital she has been begging to take a bath with them.
















It was quite an adventure. I could not have done it on my own. ZS had a great time and I think the boys enjoyed being entertained.

The Sweet Smell Of Coffee

"A fig for partridges and quails,

ye dainties I know nothing of ye;
But on the highest mount in Wales,
Would choose in peace to drink my coffee."

-Johnathon Swift


Ok, so maybe I wouldn't go all the way to Wales, but to drink coffee in peace would be wonderful! I remember the mornings over 5 years ago when I would wake to the smell of the coffee brewing and slowly roll out of bed, stumble into the kitchen and pour myself a large cup of coffee (with extra sugar, of course) and melt into my pink couch with Chloe (my jack russell) and enjoy my quiet morning with no husband or children. Nowadays...........


I still get to have my coffee but my sips seem to be punctuated by changing diapers, flipping bacon, and the occasional nuclear meltdown that getting up before 7:00am can cause in a 4 yr old. I guess it is a good thing that the coffee interruptions come with sweet smiles and the truth is, that having a family leads me to believe that coffee was really invented for moms.



I love this picture. It is so hard to capture both boys smiling at the same time but somehow it happened.

This is also perfectly demonstrates the two boys personalities. Jude is a whole face smiler while Cort is just happy to be entertained.




This week the boys had their 4 month check up and everything was great. I remember when Zoe Scout was little I did not worry about anything concerning her development. I have found though that I am always a little nervous when the boys have to go to the doctor. I am not sure why this is. Maybe it is because they were preemies or maybe because it is because they are boys. Colin tells me that he felt the same way about Scout.

Jude weighed in at 16 lbs 5oz which believe it or not is only the 56th percentile. It does however make him the biggest Parr baby by far. Sweet Chunky Monkey!







Cort made a much smaller impact on the scale at only 13lbs 5oz. A whole 3lbs less then his brother!



I think this is one of the things that makes the boys so fun......they are so different. When I was pregnant I read an article that described fraternal twins as two separate pregnancies at once. This becomes more and more clear to me every day and fascinates me to no end. I am sure as they grow up and become men they will have a hard time convincing others that they are twins.







Here is another rare moment. Zoe Scout clearly favors Cort over Jude. She says it is because Cort looks like her. Little does she realize now that while she and Cort share many physical features, it is Jude that seems to be the most like her personality wise. As a matter of fact, I think Jude is going to give her a run for her money when it comes to who can be the loudest and talk the most.

Anyway, I caught her loving on Jude a couple of mornings ago. I was blow drying my hair and heard Jude from the living room announcing that he had wakened from his nap. I rushed to retrieve him from his swing before he woke up Cort and deposited him on the bed with ZS while I finished getting ready. I figured she would just go about her business and ignore him as usual but she took the opportunity to snuggle with him and describe what was going on in "Wallace and Gromit". He loved the attention!




I feel like the last five months have gone by so fast. I am amazed at how big the boys look in the crib now. They used to look so small when I would put them in there together and now I feel like the time when they will be sleeping separately is not far off. They do seem to always find their way right next to each other during the night no matter how I lay them down.


I am not usually the parent who give Zoe Scout baths. It is one of those activities that I gladly give over to Colin. Bath time seems to take so much energy and the truth is that by 5:00 most of my energy is gone. This is one time though were I was giving the bath and we had fun playing
hair styles.

It took her a while to catch on and when she did she laughed so hard at the silly things you can do to hair when it is full of shampoo.















Being a child is so much fun. Zoe Scout's joy is such a reminder to me to try to find laughable moments during the day. I often find myself thinking only about what needs to be done and then she marches into the room and says something like "Mommy, I really like your threads!" She makes my heart happy!

I Hope Miss Potter Would Be Proud

I am so excited because I finally got my Beatrix Potter prints hung today! These prints hung my nursery when I was a baby and since we didn't know that the twins were going to be boys it seemed like the perfect theme for the nursery.





The blue quilt hanging on the wall was made by Colin's grandmother. Thanks Grammie! The banner was made by my friend Rachael for my baby shower. Also, Rachael's mom, Barbara, made the Peter Rabbit bumpers and quilts for both cribs! They are so cute and I love that no one else has the same thing the boys do. Eat your heart out Pottery Barn!


Cort kept me company while I hung the prints and I think he was very proud of me once I was done.


Hey Colin, What happens if you leave a glass bottle of water in the freezer over night?


Yep, it explodes.....leaving glass shards all over your freezer.


Scout loving on her brother and brother not so sure he likes it.

Flowers

Colin brought these home for me today!



Here is Jude keeping me company while I folded the laundry yesterday. He loves to sit in the Bumbo while the dryer is on.


For the first time today Jude soothed himself into a nap by sucking his thumb. What am I going to do???!!! I am highly against thumb sucking......but neither of these boys will take a pacifier. I guess I can't control everything :) At least he looks adorable doing it.

Sleepy Saturday Morning

I love these boys.
I love that they comfort each other.
I love when they talk to me.
I love the smile they give when I peek over the crib in the morning.
I love that they are two independent people.
I love that one looks like me and one looks like Colin.
I love that they give high value to snuggle time.
I love that they listen intently to everything I say.
I love it when they hear my voice and look for me.
I love it when they laugh.
I love it when they are looking for some thing to suck on & accidentally find their brother's hand.
I love the sigh of relief they give when they get a bottle in their mouths.
I love how cute they look in stripes.
I love that they adore Zoe Scout.
I love that they are the most perfect evidence of God's goodness.
I love these boys.

March

So, as I predicted, it has taken me a long time to put up a new post but here it is finally.

Let's start off with cuteness from Things 2 & 3. Cort on the left, Jude on the right.


FYI: Key to the twins - Cort has brown hair and brown eyes and is the smaller boy. Jude has blonde hair and blue eyes and is the larger boy.







Fort Worth Children's Museum

We went with our friends Sully, Helen, and mom, Julie. Here are all 5 kids at the planetarium.


This was an air tube where you could make your own UFO and watch it fly. Of course, Zoe was uninterested in making one and opted to swipe other children's and throw those into the tube.




Making party hats.





This is a grocery store and it was madness! Imagine Wal-Mart at Superbowl half-time and then turn all the shoppers in to preschoolers.......yup.


There is only a limited number of carts and baskets so anytime one child walks away from one it is madness to try to claim it as your own. Normally, I am not the kind of mom who constantly gets in the way of healthy play and children working things out between themselves. Zoe Scout was involved in a few minor altercations with other kids but due to her somewhat manipulative negotiating skills she was able to get herself out of some sticky situations.



I did finally intervene when she started hoarding groceries on the bench beside me.



The last thing we did was the dino dig outside. This is always ZS's favorite because there is nothing she loves more then digging in the dirt.


After soaking her shoes and socks in the little stream she jettisons the shoes.



If you look closely you can see that her wet socks are now caked with an entire beach worth of sand.


And if that wasn't enough she laid down.....


......all the way. You can see why this is the last activity of the day.


Last note: PLEASE say "thank you" to any and all firemen that you see. They work very hard for our safety and give every ounce of energy they have to protect us. This is Colin at about 7:00pm, totally exhausted from work. He is my firefighting hero!