Our Baby is No Longer a Baby

After a much longer than anticipated hiatus from blogging, I am hoping to give some updates on our growing family. Although I missed doing Matthias' monthly updates like I did for our older boys, I still wrote down all of his milestones and am able to look back on each month. There is a level of mommy guilt that everything is not completely equitable between the twins and the baby in that regard but intellectually I know there were many extenuating circumstances that prevented me from doing so. We really reveled in Matthias' babyhood after surviving the intensity of having twins the first go round.

Our Matthias Theodore turned one year old last month. It was a surreal feeling for his birthday to come around. On one hand it felt as though he was still that chubby newborn with a head of dark hair and on the other it felt like a lifetime had passed.  This year has presented some heavy trials for us and we are thankful that Matthias has been a big bright spot. 

We call this little boy Baby Beef because he takes a lot after his papa. His mannerisms and facial expressions just scream Eric. At his one year appointment, this kid was in the 76th percentile for weight and height so the moniker just makes sense. He took his first steps at eleven months and really got the hang of it around his birthday. He had several words that were distinguishable including mama, papa, do-do (or dog), yes, no and diaper. He gets very animated when eating food and likes to make a 'mmmhh' sound when it is something that is his favorite. He also says 'ah' when he opens his mouth to let you know he is ready for more. He does the 'ah' sound even when he is independently feeding himself. His favorites are cheese, yogurt, crackers, snap pea crisps and fruit.  He is a good eater overall and it is not too hard to coax him to eat veggies. He also like green smoothies.

Matthias and Marcus- cousins and little buddies

We got our back yard landscaped this past summer and it has been a blessing to have a nice space for the kids to play.

Matthias has a hearty giggle and loves to be involved in whatever his older brothers are doing. Thus far he seems to be very extroverted like his older brothers as well. He is a content little guy and many people comment on how mellow he is. I like to joke that he is very easy going until he is not. It does not come out too often but this kid can have a temper and his inner sin nature can definitely rear its ugly head. He has actually pushed my face and said "Nooo, nooo, mama" when he gets frustrated from being pulled away from something off limits. He is also pretty funny when he gets caught doing something naughty. He will crawl, or now as is the case, walk away as fast as he can. He gives you this look as if to say "You did not see that." I forgot how hilarious and exhausting the naughtiness of a young toddler can be.

Right at twelve months he had three teeth, just a snaggle tooth on top and two bottom teeth. He wears size four diapers and 12-18 month clothing. He does not sleep through the night...yet.  He can generally do 7-8 hours before he wakes up but that still means his mom's sleep gets seriously interrupted.  We have tried more strict forms of sleep training and it just doesn't work on him. He is his own little person and I know that it will happen eventually. I have noticed that every time he cuts a tooth that we are hitting sleep regression (no big surprise there). He is an affectionate little guy and frequently lays his head on people's shoulders which is his version of a hug.

We had a little party at our house for his first birthday and enjoyed the perfect weather by playing outside. We are so thankful for this little boy and his sweet, funny and mischievous personality. Matthias has been the perfect complement to his older brothers and they clearly adore him. We have been blessed with three sons--what an incredible gift! Thank you, Lord, for our our wee Matthias.

Baby Geneva

Our little niece, Geneva, has made her grand entrance into the world.  She is lovely and perfect. Seriously, she is a beautiful baby and I am not just saying that because I am a proud auntie. Both baby and mama are doing well.  We are so excited for the boys to have a younger cousin.  I look forward to teaching A&W to be gentlemen and to watch over and protect their little cousin.  The boys turned nineteen months today, also Geneva's birthday.  It is such a blessing to imagine all these little ones growing up together.

We went to visit the new little family and each took turns waiting with the boys in the lobby as they are too young to visit in the hospital.  I was not thinking and did not take a photo of the new family of three so I only have the photos on my camera that Adam took of me and our new niece.  At least you can see her sweet little face and I know there will be many more photos of this little girl to come.

Instagram of the little sweetie pie.

Her sweet little cheeks.

Seriously so pink and perfect.

I seriously contemplated editing out the twin skin hanging over my pants but decided that I should be more real and embrace my own badge of motherhood.

Mother's Day 2012

I thought I would share some pictures from our Mother's day celebration a couple weeks ago.  Mother's Day happened to fall on Adam's birthday this year so we had a joint celebration at Adam and Ally's house.  Auntie Ally's family was also there to celebrate the double event.  This was all the same day that our little dog Scooter somehow got out of the yard and was nowhere to be found.  That put a damper on the day for me but thankfully he was returned to us the very next morning.  I still really enjoyed Mother's Day however and just remembering God's goodness to me in the past year as a new mother.  It had been a tough couple weeks with the boys but I knew it was only a phase and we would be coming out of it again.  Both boys are healthy once again, seem to be doing better with their teething and have been doing so well.

We had perfect weather on Mother's Day and had a great barbecue at Adam and Ally's.  Their house has a nice deck in the back yard so we all ate outside.

"Dude, mom, I am trying to eat here."

Auntie Ally's parents, Wade and Colleen were also there for the big celebration.

 

Auntie Ally and her brother Austin.  Winston really took to Austin and was his buddy.

So speaking of Mother's Day, I thought I would share some happy news.  There is going to be a new Guddat baby this year.  Yep, that's right.  Abraham and Winston will be getting a new little...cousin!  Auntie Ally and Uncle Adam are having a baby!  Wait, what?  You thought I might be having a baby?  No, I am just a tease like that. You will also note that Ally is opening a Mother's day gift in the picture above because it was her first Mother's Day.   

And for the record, no more Guddat babies for us for a while longer.  I am busy enough with the two we have. We will thoroughly enjoy being an uncle and auntie however. 

Uncle Adam opening his birthday presents.

My two little men  I have to take pictures of me holding them both while I still can!

I am so thankful that I get to be a mother to these precious boys.

The whole Guddat clan together.

My Babies When They Were Babies

We spent this past Christmas in Southern California with my side of the family.  My cousin Kristin is a professional photographer and offered to take pictures of the boys while we were down there visiting.  Ummm, yes please!  She is so talented and I was so excited about her generous offer.  We had arrived in So Cal after midnight the night before we had scheduled to do the shoot.  It was the first road trip that we had taken with the boys and we were all zonked by the time we arrived at my mom and stepdad's house.  Thankfully the boys took a long morning nap after waking up at their normal time and then we headed over to Kristin's studio for the shoot.  She worked so fast and took a total of forty five minutes to take all these fabulous pics.  The boys had a quick food break in between some outfit changes and were happy little campers until we crept into the afternoon nap slot.

These pictures are precious to me because they capture A&W's individual little personalities as well as their twin bond.  They were still my baby boys in these pics rather than my little toddlers. I was so excited when I saw these that I asked Kristin for the web files so that I could share them on my blog.  I wanted to brag about how cute my kids were as well as Kristin's fine work.  If you or anyone you know is looking for a children and family photographer in the San Diego area, then you need Kristin Rachelle Photography.  She also does the most incredible beach photography.  Seriously. It was hard to pick a select number to share (otherwise this would have needed to be a slide show) but here are some of my favorites:

 My sweet bubbas- 9.5 months

 Our Abraham

 Our Winston

 They look like little men here.  What are they, thirty?

 Abraham telling Winston a joke.

So sweet.

Love these little faces.

Brotherly love.

The twin bond.

Little smiles.

Twelve Months!

I am finally getting to the monthly update for the boys.  It took a while just to recover from their party.  Ha!  And now I am coming down with something.  The boys stay healthy but it seems like every month I am fighting something off.  I love blogging but it also has to fit into family time rather than cutting into it.  I also do not have my own laptop after mine died right after the boys were born.  Bad timing, right?  But I continue to prevail getting updates in.  I love my bubbas (as I like to call them) and am amazed at how they are learning and changing all the time.

 On their first birthday with their personalized shirts. 

They were so tired by this point but I was able to get some smiles.

Winston makes this 'o' shape with his lips lately.  It makes me laugh.

Abraham and Winston are becoming more animated and interactive.  It is so much fun watching them evolve and their personalities develop more and more.  The boys are into everything at this stage.  They want to touch the exact thing that you tell them not to.  They want to stand up in the bath tub.  They understand exactly what it is you do not want them to do, they give you this look while making eye contact and then go to do it again.  Sigh.  The need to correct seems to be constant now.  They are becoming more autonomous and testing limits everyday.   It is a blessing but it is really hard some days when they gang up against me.  Winston tends to take correction better while Abraham bears down and refuses to cooperate. 

They gained a new word this past month which is 'up.'  When they want to be taken out of their crib or play yard or picked up from the floor they say 'up.'  Abraham has really been using it more and more this past week.  They can say 'mama', 'dada/papa' (it interchanges but they say it in context), baba (for brother), 'hi' and now 'up.'  They wave hi and good-bye.  They wave good-bye to papa in the morning when he leaves for work and wave hi when he comes home.  It is too cute.  They can also put their arms above their head when you ask ,"How big are you?"  They smile when I say, "Soooo big."  I am super proud of them. They like to shake their heads and shoulders when I sing the alphabet to them.  They have started "singing."  It is gibberish just like the baby talk but they string tones together in a way that it sounds like singing.

As mentioned in a previous post, they can pull themselves into a standing position.  They started cruising and are trying to stand without holding onto something.  Abraham will walk if we hold his hands.  Winston is not too sure yet and rather crawl because it is faster for him.  After he is done standing, Winston looks behind him, determines if it is all clear and then falls on his padded behind.  Abraham keeps holding on and slowly lowers to his knees and back to into a seated position.  It is so entertaining just seeing the differences between them.  We are thinking that Abraham will walk first because he is going through the motions but Winston may surprise us.  Winston can be more fearless in that regard and he also has been trying harder to stand up on his own without pulling up on something.   

They are now eating like big boys and finally using those teeth.  They are really good eaters.  In a change of fashion, Abraham has become the more discriminatory eater.  Abraham does not eat as much and tends to take longer to take to new foods. Winston really puts it away and his last weight check demonstrated that. Their favorites are pinto beans, avocado, cubes of apple, grapes, peas, broccoli, yams and whole grain bread.  I have started introducing some dairy in the form of yogurt mixed with ground flax and apple sauce.  It is the only thing I can think of that I still spoon feed them.  They have also had some small handfuls of shredded cheese.  Thus far no ill effects so I am hoping they are outgrowing the lactose problems.  They have had some scrambled eggs and have been fine with that.  We have not done any meat yet for various reasons.  Right now we want them to focus on plant foods so that they really develop a taste for them.  They are still nursing about four times a day.  They have not lost interest at all so I do not see with them self-weaning any time soon.  They drink water from their sippy cups but are not enthusiastic about it.  We may try juicing some grapes or sweet apples and letting them try that.  I may also look into a milk substitute to get some more calories in.  I do not want them to be too dependent upon me for their hydration.

A&W are both really attached to me but they are really starting to enjoy their papa. They just beam when he comes home. They like to sit on his lap and watch a show like 'Man vs. Food,' crawl around on the floor with him and treat him like a jungle gym. We tried watching Disney's 'Cars' but their attention span is pretty short.  They also listen more quickly to their papa when he corrects them. 

 Our Winston has the sweetest smile that takes up his whole face.

Winston is a ray of sunshine that has such a sweet smile.  He is our little cuddle bug lately.  Winston will lay his head on our shoulders and just let us hold him and rock him.  He gives pats and hugs. He will also give kisses unprompted once in a while.  He likes to take two toys whether it is little blocks or cars or whatever and bang them together.  Winston loves his rocking horse that he got for his birthday.  He loves food and will pretty much eat anything.  He is our speed crawler and can seriously launch himself.  We love you, Winston!

My happy, blue-eyed boy, Winston.

 My little Abraham, full of life.

Abraham is a bundle of affection wrapped in mischief. His smile can be quite a smirk at times like he has a little secret. He has a strong will and spirit.  He is very focused on what he wants to do whether it is walking, talking, etc.  He is more vocal and picks up on words quickly. He has a serious temper and will not give up easily. He likes to sit on a lap and cuddle.  Abraham is all about trying to cruise and learn to walk.  He is so happy when he learns something new.  Abraham, we love you!

Real life is a bump on Abraham's lip and remnants of yams on his face.

To our sweet boys, you have so many similarities but it becomes quite evident that you are each your own person.  You like to keep us on our toes and change things up quite often.  You never let us pigeon hole you and I am grateful for that.  You both have taught us what dying to self means and a greater need for patience.  We love you so much more than we could ever tell you and feel so grateful to the Lord that He allowed us to be your parents.  It has been a wonderful year and we look forward to many more with you in God's grace.  

First Birthday Party

This past weekend was the boys' first birthday and we had a great party for them.  It was a lot of work and we had quite the house full but I am glad we did it.  We wanted it to be a celebration of God's faithfulness to us in our first year as parents.  It was a huge milestone.  Not only did the boys turn a year old but it was an anniversary for Eric and me.  We survived the year as first time parents to twins!  So many of the people at the party had been an encouragement to us at the time whether it was dropping off a meal, praying with us or checking in to make sure that we were actually surviving. We wanted to celebrate those people that had walked that journey with us and show them our thankfulness. We were also blessed to have my dad, stepmom and my Grandma Ida come from So Cal for the event. A&W were surrounded by their family, friends and neighbors and it was wonderful to see how loved our boys truly are.  It really was a great day.

When Abraham and Winston were born last year and we named them, we realized that their initials would be A&W and decided we would have to incorporate that into their first birthday party.  The only issue was that if I chose all orange and brown for the decorations then it would potentially look like Halloween or the colors of the local high school.  So instead I went with an all-American theme for my all-American boys.  What could be more all-American than a barbecue?

The decorations consisted of checked table cloths, fresh cut flowers in glass jars, foil cut stars, multi-colored tissue paper poofs, a pennant banner and a picture montage of the boys' first year. We barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs.  There were traditional sides like potato salad, baked beans and potato chips. Healthy items like a vegetable tray and salad were also available.

And of course there were plenty of desserts.  We had A&W root beer floats, root beer float cupcakes and an awesome cake decorated with the theme in mind.

I was thrilled with how well the cake turned out.  I did not make this.  I left it to the professionals.  I did make the root beer float cupcakes however.  The recipe is here if you are interested.  Yes, they really did taste like a float with the scoops of butter cream frosting.  I made the kid friendly version with root beer extract (instead of root beer Schnapp's for the glaze) and they were a hit. 

The weather turned out to be great. It was cool and overcast in the morning but some sunshine peeked through just in time for the party.

They were sweet and happy for the majority of the day.  They ate a good lunch before their first sugary treats--cupcakes!

Mr. Winston

Mr. Abraham

I did a video of the actual cup cake destroying but did get this shot.  I know there were other people taking photos so I will get a better one down the road.

There were lots of hugs and love for the birthday boys.

Auntie Alicia and Winston

Grandma Anne and Grandpa Sid came up from So Cal.

 Our happy little family.

 

Grammy and Abraham

 

Eric and I ordered our A&W root beer shirts from the original A&W in Lodi, CA using their ebay store.  The boys' shirts were made and ordered on Customized Girl.

The whole day was a blur but I am thankful that I got quite a few pictures.  We are now the parents of two toddlers...crazy!  It is hard to imagine that a year has actually gone by that quickly yet so much has changed that it feels like a lifetime.  In all of it, we are blessed.