Oaks Park

We went to a fun little amusement park last week called Oaks Park. They had a preschool program with unlimited rides for little kids for 2 hours in the morning, and it ended with story time and cookies! We had a blast, and Collin loved every minute. We got so many cute pictures to share!

Collin and Adam on a little car ride

Collin's first rollercoaster!

Carousel!

Our cute boy

The huge slide was their favorite! 

Our family

Collin loved this chipmunk! And now I want to take him to Disneyland.

I think he wanted him to pick him up.

So much fun! We're having lots of fun during Rob's break! We're also getting lots of projects and organizing done. . . it's nice to have Rob home to help with everything since I'm pretty limited, but still definitely "nesting". And we're enjoying a few last outings as a family of 3!

Collin's 2nd Birthday!

Collin turned 2 on the 23rd, and he loved his birthday! We can't believe we have a 2 year old . . . he is such a fun boy, and is always making us laugh! We love this little boy so much.

We had a little party for him on Saturday. We wanted to keep it small and simple, and it turned out to be fun! We made it a fish theme since Collin loves fish. He had 7 little friends come. Normally, it's hard to get good smiling pictures of him, but there were so many this day that it was hard to pick favorites! He was all smiles and loved his party!

We made him a fish cake!

He was in the middle of saying "Hooray! Hooray!" We just have to say "Hen in a hat. . . " and he says it, quoting the Dr. Seuss ABC book. It's the cutest thing ever!

Treats- goldfish, shark fruit snacks, and fruit (his favorite).

Pin the eye on the fish!

Magnetic fishing!

Blowing out the candle!

Love this boy!

He liked opening presents, and his friends liked watching!

His actual birthday was on Sunday, and he loved every minute of that day too! We put a bunch of balloons in his room while he was asleep the night before. We sang Happy Birthday to him as we came in to get him in the morning. He loved the balloons and played with them for a long time!

Breakfast- chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream

He spent the morning at church. He was so excited and it was hard to keep him somewhat quiet during sacrament meeting. We had some new shoes we'd bought for him, and when we put them on him we told him they were his special birthday shoes. Whenever he saw a friend, he lifted up his foot to show them his "special shoes!" with a huge smile. He knew it was a special day!

More presents!

He loves his new basketball hoop!

 After church, a "special lunch" (a Lunchable) and presents, he took a good nap. When he woke up, we had pizza for dinner (He loves it and likes to repeat "pizza! pizza! pizza!" when he has some) then headed to Laurel and Rob's for cupcakes and ice cream!

He actually blew out 2 of the candles all by himself!

He had a blast playing at their house!

He loves playing with his cousin Annika!

Collin loved his special day, and we loved seeing him so excited and happy. We love our little 2 year old!

End of Summer

This summer has been really weird. We had lots of plans to do all kinds of fun things, spend tons of time outside, take advantage of all the community things going on. . . but instead, we've spent more time indoors than we anticipated.  We mostly feel bad for Collin, because we have really wanted to make the most of his last months as our baby. But, he is the sweetest little boy, and has been happy and energetic despite my limitations, and has kept us smiling.
Some highlights from August/ September:
Baby Shower!
My awesome friend Kari threw an adorable Thing 1 and Thing 2 baby shower for the twins, and it turned out great! We are so lucky to have so many great friends here. It was lots of fun and it was the perfect way to get excited about our babies after all the time we've spent worrying about this pregnancy.

Everything was so cute!

Game- stickers with names of famous twins. We had to find our twin without knowing what our sticker said.

Guests with some favorite Dr. Seuss books

Hilarious fake babies filled with diapers. Made by Shannon! :)

Love little matching twin outfits!

Rob's Birthday
Rob turned 27 on August 27th! So, I'll just admit it. . . we are Justin Bieber fans around here. We like his music, and listen to the JB pandora station all the time. Collin likes dancing to it with Rob. Rob occasionally gets teased about liking his music, so I decided to have him a little Bieber birthday party. I figured it would be an easy theme to find supplies for, since Justin has a lot of pre-teen girl fans.

Purple and black cake

A few decorations

A few more misc. pictures:

Helping Rob roll out his hamstrings.

Rob is doing a pushup/situp challenge this month, and Collin likes to do it too.

Weird picture, but sometimes it really looks like 2 babies from the top. One on each side- A on the left, B on the right.

Collin is a good stacker. (Thanks Julia for the play-doh! )

My boys. Never mind the huge bruises on Collin's face- after taking 2 falls on the same day.

He discovered how to make faces against the screen door.

And a baby update: I'm still going in twice a week, and things have been consistently looking great! Fluid levels and growth have been perfectly normal. We are so happy and grateful, and hoping things continue this way. And I had another fetal fibronectin test done yesterday, and it was another negative- so as long as the babies are fine, I most likely have at least another 2 weeks before delivering! That will put me at 34 weeks, almost 35. So much better than we could have hoped for a month or 2 ago! We can't believe how things have changed and how well everything is going right now.

So, Rob has the next 2 weeks off school, and we're excited to spend it completing projects, preparing for babies, and having some fun as a family!

This Little Boy of Ours

We can't believe our little Collin will be 2 next week! He amazes us every day with the new things he learns. Here are a few things we want to remember about our boy at almost two years old:

• He still loves dancing, and begs us to dance with him whenever music is on.  He's also learning to sing along to songs. We've noticed that he can sing along to some of the regular songs on the Justin Bieber pandora station (our favorite dance music. haha). He also learns songs from nursery at church, and he can fill in the last word to each line when we sing them.
• His favorite song lately is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- at night time, when we ask him what song he wants us to sing, he always says "De-de de-de de-de. . . Doss." Sometime we hear him singing it to himself in his crib.
• He knows so many words. Rob and I were trying to list them and there were too many to count. He pretty much knows the word for everything that is relevant in his life- foods we eat, toys, things around the house, things he sees outside.
• He loves books and can finish the sentences when reading his favorites, such as "Mr. Brown can Moo", "Marvin K Mooney", "Dr. Seuss's ABCs", (any Dr. Seuss), "Hooray for Fish", and a Cheerios play book.
• He can count to 10, and he now knows all of the letters (both of these skills he surprised us with before we'd spent much time actively trying to teach him- slightly embarrassed that he may have learned it from Sesame Street/ SuperWhy in the mornings while I've needed to rest). He points out the letters on everything- signs, boxes, etc.
• He loves pulling his alphabet magnets off the fridge and bringing them to me, telling me what letter it is.
• His favorite show is "Super Why" and he's recently started interacting when they ask questions.
• We love it when he pretends to "adjust" our necks. He grabs our heads and moves them side to side, making clicking noises with his tongue.
• Some of my favorite things he says: "Doss" = Sorry (or Star), the letter "R", the sound of rain according to Dr. Seuss (dibble dibble dibble dopp), and when he says "Hooray!" (sounds like "a- way!") really high pitched while raising his arm in the air.
• He'll pull a DVD off the shelf and gives it to us saying "show" when he wants to watch a movie.
• He likes touching my belly and saying "babies". We got little rubber ducks and explained that they were for him to give to the babies when they get here. He grabbed them and stuck them towards my belly. He also likes putting binkies and bottles on my belly for the babies.
• We got a microwave cart that has cupboards, and a few times a day, he empties it and hides in there.
• He likes having both his milk and water sippy cups at the same time. He says "Meek! Wawa! Meek! Wawa!" over and over until we get both for him.
• He loves fruit and will eat any kind of berries for as long as we let him, stuffing them in his mouth with both hands.
• When he sees one of his friends, he walks up to them, turns his head sideways, and gets inches from their face just smiling at them.

 We love this boy!

Enjoying a treat at Krispy Kreme

Reading with Daddy. He was in the middle of saying "ahh... ahh... achoo!"

Just relaxing with his buddy Adam.

Cute plaid boys

Testing out the beds at Babies R Us.

We took him to McDonalds for the first time. He loved his happy meal nuggets ("Nunnets!) and playing on the toys! 

This was at the Vista House view point place. Moments later, his beloved sunglasses broke. Every time we went outside after that, he'd beg for his glasses until we found him some new ones.

Improvements

The last few weeks have been really good! Things have been looking great with our babies, and each appointment has been better than the last. At our 29 week appointment, Baby A's fluid had finally gone down to about 8 or 9 cm, which was a huge improvement, and indicated that things were evening out after all!  However, at that time, they noticed that his heart wall was a little thickened, so they had me come back and see a cardiologist the next week.

When I met with him at 30 weeks, he looked at both babies' hearts and everything looked fine! This was a huge relief; those hearts have been through a lot. I also had an ultrasound at that time, and they were looking great! Fluid levels were 6cm and 4cm, which was the best they'd ever been. Their estimated weights were 3lb, 7oz and 3lb, 1oz. Right on track for their age and not too different from each other! Finally, a happy appointment. The new concern though was that one of the blood flow measurements for Baby A was abnormal. My doctor said that after laser surgery, lots of weird things can happen and it doesn't necessarily mean anything, but she wanted to be on the cautious side and keep an eye on it. So, from now on I'm going in twice a week. I am glad to have a doctor who is so thorough and cautious. The other little concern at this appointment was that my doctor checked my cervix, and it was now dilated a fingertip and effaced 50%. Which doesn't necessarily mean anything yet- some people stay at that level for a long time, but I still would have felt better if I wasn't dilated at all.

My last appointment was yesterday (still at 30 weeks), and it was even better. Both babies looked great and fluid levels were perfect. My cervix was the same, and my doctor did a fetal fibronectin test. This is supposed to detect a protein that indicates that labor is going to happen soon. A negative test means there's a 95% chance that I will not deliver within the next 2 weeks. So it was a huge relief that it came back negative! In 2 weeks, I'll be 32 weeks, almost 33. I know that's still early, but it's nice to know that as long as nothing big changes with the babies, I'll likely at least make it until then!

And a few belly pictures. . . I haven't grown at a normal gradual pace, because of how much amniotic fluid levels have fluctuated. I feel like I was huge at 24 weeks, then a little smaller at 25 weeks because of surgery. Then, I grew again quickly until 28 weeks, but then at 30 fluid had gone down again so I got smaller. So, the last 6 or 7 weeks have just been weird with a fluctuating belly size. I guess now looking at the pictures next to each other, it's hard to tell a difference. But, I could definitely tell. I feel like I'm finally at a normal size for how far along I am.