14 Months Old!!

Well the girls are 14 months old today (just over 11 months adjusted) and they are both doing great!! I am finally starting to admit to myself that my babies are turning into toddlers, and it makes me sad. However, this stage really is a lot of fun. They are both walking now 95% of the time, and they get better and better everyday. Kylee is nearly ready to start running! It's funny because I was so fearful of two walking babies at the same time, but really it actually makes things a lot easier. They are much happier because they can get where they want to go, when they want to go there.

In the last week or so, the girls have really started to become little cuddle bugs. Before they were always way too busy to give me (or anyone else for that matter) Love. Now they walk over to me and give me hugs and kisses all day long. It's the sweetest thing ever! I was giving Kaylyn a hug yesterday and I was patting her back, and she started patting mine. It was adorable!

They both currently have 6 teeth (2 on top and 4 on bottom). I haven't been brave enough to stick my fingers in there in the last week or so, so I really don't know if there are any more coming in or not.

We are definitely entering the "Monkey-See, Monkey-Do" phase. As funny as it is to see them mimic us, we really have to be careful now of what we say and do! These two are like little sponges! We are currently working on teaching them the hand motions to the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and the girls will consistently put their hands together to do the spider, and they can also do the "down comes the rain" part with their hands. And of course we always clap in celebration after every song. It's so cute!!

I cannot even tell you how many weird sounds and noises these girls makes. They have quite a few "tricks". Kaylyn just learned how to blow bubbles with her spit, so that's always fun. And I never knew there could be so many different variations of raspberries! They also love to click their tongues, and make silly sounds by moving their fingers up and down on their lips!

Sharing is also a new thing in this household. When I started teaching them this I never thought that would include their food as well. They love to try to put their bottle in your mouth, and they even put their bottle to their baby dolls mouth and try and feed them. Their other new favorite thing is to do is put food in their mouth, chew it up, take it back out and feed it to you. I graciously deny this wonderful gift. They will also give us what is in their hands upon request (most of the time!).

This is also a special day to us because One Year ago today, Kaylyn was discharged from the NICU!! Last week when Kaylyn went to the Dr for her follow up, they both got weighed and Kaylyn weighed 23lbs 15oz, and Kylee weighed 22lbs 5oz. I am continually amazed at how well they are doing. They have made so much progress in such a short amount of time. They truly are my little miracles!

Kaylyn is home from the Hospital!

This is going to be a long one...

These last few days have been incredibly stressful to say the least. It all started Monday night when Kaylyn woke up around 10pm wheezing really bad and having a really hard time breathing (when she went to bed at 7pm she was perfectly fine). Keith went in to check on her, and the next thing I know he is standing in the doorway with her saying we need to take her to the Emergency Room immediately. So we get her pack up and we head to the ER up here in Temecula. Let's just say that this hospital's care and staff were sub standard at best.

When we first got there, we waited for about 20 minutes for a nurse to come and triage Kaylyn. Finally, when nobody came and Kaylyn was working even harder to breathe Keith approached the secretary sitting at the desk to find out when she was going to be triaged. The receptionist told him that she didn't know and he needed to go outside and use the phone to call the nurse himself! So he did and the nurse finally came out and agreed that she needed to be brought back immediately.

So we finally got a bed (in the hallway in the middle of the ER) and we wait even longer. No one comes over to help, no nurses, doctors or respiratory therapists and my baby is working hard to breathe! So again, Keith gets up and demands to know who the Charge nurse is. He spoke with the Charge nurse and she called the respiratory therapist to come over and take a look at her. Keep in mind that we have now been at this ER for over an hour! They proceed to give her a breathing treatment, followed by an RSV swab in the nose. This is when things started to go downhill fast.

The swab totally pissed her off (as it would anybody) and she got really upset which resulted in her not being able to breath at all. She was working so hard to move air but she just couldn't. She was turning blue in front of our eyes and no one was doing anything. There is nothing worse than watching your child struggle to breath. Keith and I both thought that she was going to die right then and there. It was beyond scary. Thank goodness Keith was there and he demanded the equipment to help her himself. Keep in mind that this is all going on in the middle of the ER where everyone is watching.

Finally after what seemed like at eternity, Keith was able to calm her down and she received several more breathing treatments. She still sounded awful and the decision was made that she needed to be transferred down to Children's hospital. She was so sick that they were originally going to fly her by helicopter to get her there quicker, but unfortunately it was too foggy so she had to be sent by Critical Care Ambulance.

While she was being transferred I went home and picked up Kylee (my mom stayed with her while Keith and I were at the ER). Poor thing had to be woken up at 2am, but she was a trooper and we rendezvoused with Keith and Kaylyn at Children's.

By the time we got to Children's Kaylyn was stabilized and doing better, however she was still very sick. They determined that she had a very severe case of Croup (which is an upper respiratory infection). Keith took Kylee to his parent's house and I stayed with Kaylyn. It was a very long night, but I knew that she was finally in capable hands.

Amazingly, Kaylyn was in such good spirits the entire time she was in the hospital. You wouldn't even know she was sick if you couldn't hear her breathe (which was an absolute awful sound!). She dazzled all the nurses, doctors, and staff with her goofy animated personality.

She continued to improve and thankfully was discharged yesterday afternoon. I don't think I have ever been awake so many consecutive hours, I was nearly a zombie! Keith's parents were absolutely wonderful and kept Kylee the entire time so that we could be with Kaylyn. I don't know what we would have done without them.

She is home now and doing well. We took her to the Dr this morning for a follow up and he said that the worst of it is behind us. Somehow Kylee managed to evade this sickness, which I am oh so happy about. Needless to say, the last few days have been crazy to say the least. I am just so thankful that she is home now and doing better.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sorry I am a couple days late on posting this, but we just got home from the River late last night. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We had such a great time at the river! It was a little rainy and we spent more time inside than I would have liked but it was still a great trip. The girls were so good, and managed to keep their same sleep schedule(including sleeping through the night!)! They tried walking on the uneven ground actually did pretty well. They also experienced their first ever bon fire. The girls also went fishing and golfing with daddy as well and they loved it! I was amazed at how much Turkey the girls gobbled up. They really like it a lot. I am so Thankful for my wonderful family!!



Our drive back last night was a little stressful. It started out with Keith noticing our rear right tire pressure dropping via the digital readout on the dash. We were hoping something was wrong with the gauge, but we pulled over and sure enough we had a hole in our tire. Keith had to plug the tire and re-inflate it, and then we were on our way. The girls were not stoked on the drive home. They never took an afternoon nap before we left and they were not wanting to sleep in the car. It didn't help that we were driving straight into the sunset so the sun was in their eyes for quite a while. Thankfully we finally made it home, and the girls went right to bed.

Another Episode of "24"

Keith and I took the girls up to LA again today so they could shoot their second episode of "24". On this season of "24" the girls are playing baby Teri, who is Kim's daughter. Kim is Jack Bauer's daughter (Kiefer Sutherland). So essentially they are the granddaughter of the main character Jack Bauer.

This time we were on location at a beautiful home in Woodland hills (just north of Hollywood). Kaylyn did the first 2 takes, but they turned out great so they didn't end up needing Kylee behind the camera this time. Kaylyn's scene was in the kitchen with her "Daddy" in the middle of the night, sitting in her high chair drinking a bottle and eating cheerios. I didn't actually see the taping this time because the house was a lot smaller and Kylee wanted to run around and play and while they are shooting it has to be incredibly silent. Keith stayed in and watch them do the shoot. Apparently she did great, and everyone was very pleased with her "Performance".

They did get some still photo's of Kylee in her wardrobe that are going to be used as a prop of some sort. I'm still not sure how it all fits together. I guess I am going to have to start watching the show!

The cast and crew were exceptionally nice. The casting director even gave us some of the extra baby stuff they had laying around like 2 really nice bibs and bowls with spoon and fork (all brand new!). The girls studio teacher this time used to be Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's studio teacher when they were on Full House. She was with them from when they were 8months old on. She has lots of interesting stories to tell us and she was incredibly good with the girls!

Now for the not-so-good news. I didn't get any pictures yesterday!! Things just happened so quick and I really didn't have time to shoot any pictures. The girls were in the same wardrobe that they were in last time (the pajamas). I believe this episode is the 3rd to last before the completion of the season because they told us there were only 2 more episodes to shoot. I will keep you posted with an air date!

Video of my Big Walkers!

I just thought that I would post a video of the girls cruising around after bath time tonight. They both get such a kick out of themselves and their new mode of transportation!

Ah, they Love each other!

The cutest thing happened this morning... Kaylyn fell down and started crying, and Kylee walked over to her and sat down next to her, rubbed her back, and patted her head. Then she also started crying. It was precious to see the obvious compassion that she has for her sister, and how sad it made her to see her sister upset.

The picture I posted is obviously not recent, it is one of the first pics I have of the girls together when they were still in the NICU and it also happens to be one of my favorites.

I have TWO Walkers!!!

In the last couple of days the girls have really started getting the hang of this walking thing. Kylee especially is walking all over the place, and Kaylyn is up to 10 or so steps. It is so funny how differently they go about it though. Kylee is very methodical with every step she takes. She thinks about what she is doing and plans it all out. Kaylyn couldn't be more different. She just gets up and goes, usually resulting in falling but it doesn't phase her any. She just bombs right along. Neither one of them has quite figured out how to stand up without holding onto anything just yet, but I am sure that its not too far off.

The girls have been getting teeth like crazy in the last week. Kylee has 3 teeth on the bottom and one coming in up top and Kaylyn has 4 teeth on the bottom and 2 coming in up top. I really thought that with all these teeth coming through at the same time that they would be in an incredibly amount of pain, but it really hasn't phased them at all. They are just as happy as can be, and other than the excessive drooling they are just fine.

I am now truly starting to appreciate having twins. The newborn days were harder than hard and absolutely tiring. But now that the girls are older they spend an incredible amount of time playing together, laughing together and chasing each other around. It is so cool that they have a playmate with them all the time.