Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

On April 18th I am going to be walking in the "March for Babies" in Carlsbad for the March of Dimes, as team Naylor Twins. For those of you that are not familiar with the March of Dimes, it is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. This obviously hits very close to home for us as Kylee & Kaylyn were born 12 weeks premature at 28 weeks 1 day. We experienced first hand how important this cause is.

I would be thrilled if you could join me in this walk, and/or sponsor our Team! Please go to http://www.marchforbabies.org/s_team_page.asp?seid=644409 to support team Naylor Twins!

First Haircut

Today we took the girls to get their first haircut! We went to a kids salon up by our house. Amazingly, both of the girls did great and weren't even too squirmy. They both have bangs now, and I think it makes them look so much older. The stylists were very quick and obviously experienced with little kids, so that helped as well. After it was all over, they mounted the girls hair to a little card and put their name on it so I can keep it forever. (Kaylyn is in the Red Car, and Kylee is in the Yellow car.)



I am very happy to report that today was Keith's graduation from the fire academy!! I am so glad that it is finally over. It was an extremely long month for all of us, but somehow we managed to make it through. It was a very nice ceremony. Keith's Mom, Grandma and Dee were also able to come, and I think that meant a lot to Keith. I am very excited for things to go back to "normal" and have Keith home again!

Be Careful what you Say!!

I am starting to realize that the girls understand far more than I ever imagined. Even though they cannot communicate everything they want/need, they have started following simple commands. Yesterday Kaylyn wanted to go Bye, Bye and I told her it was cold outside and she needed more clothes on. She then proceeded to walk over to the laundry basket, grab some clothes, put them on her head and pointed and said "Bye, Bye" again! I was in shock she understood what I had said!

They are also very good at following simple commands, like:

• Where is your Sippy? (they will then go get it)
• Where is Kaylyn/Kylee? (they will locate each other)
  
• Where is your puppy, baby, blocks etc... (they will retrieve or point)
• Show Mommy how you can ride your Pony. (they will walk over and get on their pony and start riding)
• If I ask them if they need a new Diaper, they will go get me one to change them
• When I tell them it's time to go "Night, Night", they walk over to the baby gate to go upstairs
  

It is so fun to watch their bond grow. More and more they are playing together and even starting to share (sometimes!!). The other day Kaylyn was eating a pear, and Kylee came up and sat next to her. Kaylyn handed to pear for Kylee to take a bite, and Kylee handed it back to her once she was done. They passed it back and forth until the pear was all gone. It was so sweet!

One of my favorite things that they just started doing is giving each other Kisses! I haven't been lucky enough to get a picture of it just yet, but it just might be the cutest thing I have ever seen.

16 Months Old!!

Here we are, and the girls are 16 months old already!! The last month has been crazy busy with all of us being sick, Keith's academy and everything else going on. But I have lots of new and exciting things to share!

I just made a list of all the girls words they say now, and each one of them has about 25 words (not including Animal sounds)! I don't count a word until they use it fairly consistently, and in the proper context. They both can say about 10 different animal sounds correctly. They can also identify about 8 different parts of the body. Kaylyn's vocabulary has increased tremendously in the last month and she is now pretty much caught up with Kylee. I find it funny, that out of all of the words that they have that neither one of them has learned how to say "No"!

Kaylyn is my little climber through and through, and it is going to drive me crazy!! She attempts to climb in Everything! This child is seriously fearless! I spend the majority of each day just getting her down from places she managed to climb up on.
Kylee's favorite thing to do is play with her baby dolls. She loves to push them in her little stroller, and feed them their bottles, cuddle with them and put them in their bed. It's very cute! She also loves to "dress up", and wear pretty necklaces and bracelets, and she tries to get pretty things to stick in her hair.

The girls are obsessed with Music and Dancing!! Both of the girls can do all the hand motions for "Itsy-Bitsy Spider", "Head and Shoulders, Knee's and Toes" and "Patty-Cake". Kylee can even sing the Alphabet until the letter G! She also has the "E-I-E-I-O" down for the song "Old McDonald had a Farm", and she even inserts different animals at the appropriate time.

We have been working a lot with blocks and learning how to stack, as well as doing different puzzles, sorting different shapes, and building with Legos. They are both getting really good at it! They are obsessed with books, and love to be read to.


One thing they both figured out how to do recently, (that I am not too excited about) is Opening doors! Nothing is safe anymore! I went out and bought the locks to put on the door handles to keep them out of places they don't need to be. Now that I finally have everything Baby-proofed in this house, it's now time to Toddler-proof!

We are down to the final stretch of Keith's academy!! Only one week left, thank Goodness!

First Scab

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, but last week Kylee took a tumble and scabbed up her poor little nose. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, and she has left it alone so it is healing nicely. If nothing else, it is an easy way for other people to be able to tell them apart!

On the sickness front, I finally think we are all starting to feel better! It was an incredibly long week with all of us being sick at the same time, and Keith being gone at the fire academy. The girls still seem to have a little lingering chest cold, nut nothing serious and they seem to be back to their old happy selves.

I think we are quickly approaching a serious need for a hair cut for the girls. By hair cut, I mean I am almost certain I am going to have to give them bangs. I would have preferred not to have to do this, but it is impossible for the girls to keep anything in their hair to hold it back out of their eyes. They either pull it out, or assist their sister in pulling hers out. It's rather frustrating! I have even tried the little elastic hair ties, and somehow they manage to get those out as well. They both have some serious cow-lick's as well which makes for some entertaining hair do's to say the least. It really is at that awkward length right now where it's too short to do a lot with it, but too long to leave it alone.

I hope everyone is doing well and has a fantastic Super Bowl Sunday today!!

Update on Kylee

Unfortunately after Saturday's trip to the Urgent Care, Kylee did not seem to be doing much better. Sunday she did not nap at all, and getting her to bed was a nightmare. She was coughing so hard she kept waking herself up. I don't think she fell asleep until after 1am, and even then every 10 minutes or so she was disturbed by her coughing.

I decided yesterday that it was probably best to make an appointement with her pediatrician. When we got there they took her O2 sats were only 75%, which is not good at all. They immediately gave her a breathing treatment and that brought them up right away. The Dr. agreed that she does have bronchiolitis, but she also found that she has a pretty bad ear infection in her left ear. The Dr wrote us a prescription for 5 different medications, including a nebulizer so we can give her breathing treatments at home.

Today she seems to be doing a little better, so that is good. The Dr. said that this illness can take up to two weeks before it starts to get better. So far Kaylyn seems to be doing OK. She does have a cold and some coughing, but not nearly to the degree that Kylee has it.

Through it all I definitely consider us incredibly fortunate. For the girls being 28 week preemies, each one of them has only gotten really sick once. So in that aspect we are very lucky. Hopefully in the next couple of days, once the medications have time to fully work their way into her system, Kylee will start to be back to her old self.

Kylee's Turn

This time it was Kylee's turn to get sick and scare the heck out of her Mommy!

For the last 3 days or so, the girls have both had chest colds. As Kaylyn's seemed to be getting better, Kylee's was getting significantly worse. This morning she was very "crackly" with every breath she took. I called the after hours nurse hotline, and she suggested I put her in the bathroom for 20 min with the shower on HOT so she could get a steam treatment to hopefully clear her up. So we did that, and although the steam seemed to work for the Crackles, she was now wheezing pretty bad. UGH! So I called the nurse back, and she told me to take her to Urgent Care. So off we went.

We got there and we were seen within 5 minutes, which was very nice. The Dr. listened to her lungs and initially was concerned that is was pneumonia, so he ordered a chest x-ray. He told me up front that if it is pneumonia, she would definitely have to be admitted to the hospital. "Oh great, here were go again", is what I thought to myself. Well they did the chest x-ray and thankfully she doesn't have pneumonia, but she does have bronchiolitis (not bronchitis). Bronchiolitisis an illness of the respitatory tract caused by an infection that affects the tiny airways, called the bronchioles, that lead to the lungs. As these airways become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, making breathing difficult.

They gave her a breathing treatment there at the Urgent Care, and wrote us a prescription for an oral steroid that she will need to take for the next 5 days. The breathing treatment made such a difference, and she started to sound better immediately. I am going to call the girls primary Dr on Monday and see if she can arrange to get us a nebulizer for us to keep at the house so we don't have to run out and get these breathing treatments all the time... it seems to be a rathercommon need for us.

Right now she is in bed for the night, and I am hoping she is able to get some rest so she can start to get better. These girls are going to give me gray hair before I am 30!