FARM ANIMALS

The girls and I went with one of our Mommy groups to this place called Frying Pan Park....one nice thing about Virginia is that it has a ton of little parks. This park was formerly one of the largest dairy cow farms in the county. Now they have farm animals, crops, and wagon rides for the kiddos. Our favorite was the giant pig that had a bunch of little piglets! Unfortunately my camera had only enough battery life for this one picture. We are with part of the group in front of the chicken coop.

9 MONTHS OLD

We had our 9 month doctor's appointment today, so now I can officially post all of our 9 month updates. Fortunately Darren was able to come to the appointment - very useful to have an extra person to help wrangle the girls and to listen to the doctor.

Interesting....when I drop a toy it doesn't disappear...it hits the ground.

The biggest shocker of all was that the doctor told us that we needed to increase calorie consumption. We said "HUH???" Actually we did not say that out loud, just inside our heads. I thought 'Thank heavens D is here cause he would never believe me otherwise.'

Did you hear that we get to eat more??
Thank heavens cause I was wasting away. I was worried that I might have to tap into the reserves in my thighs. Disaster averted!

Our awful doctor in Houston had told us at the 6 month appointment that we needed to cut back on the amount of formula that we were giving the girls so that they did not end up gigantic sacks of lard (obviously a paraphrase.) Well apparently, D and I have overdone that as the girls have fallen off their growth charts. So now we will be increasing the formula back up to maintain their current, slightly lower, growth curve.

It is apparently exhausting to be 9 months old.

Everything else was fine. Apparently there is still no need to be worried about their limited mobility (I know you already told me that Bethany!). They did get one shot because apparently VA does them slightly different than TX. But they handled this fine.

Just don't move and maybe they won't see us.

Here are the current stats:

Brooke:
weight 20 lbs 8 oz (75th percentile)
height 29.75 in (above 95th percentile)
head 45.09 cm (75th percentile)
4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth with an additional bottom just barely through the gums

Audrey:
weight 18 lbs (around 35th - 40th percentile)
height 28.25 in (75th percentile)
head 43.18 cm (25th percentile)
0 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth with 2 tops just barely through the gums

And here is a rather long video of Audrey and her moving. It is also quite cute to see her looking at herself in the mirror. And yes our playroom is always that messy. Please ignore my toe moving the pacifier if that disturbs you.

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

We have been trying more food lately. Usually our main food comes from either formula or Gerber #2 foods. We try to slip in the occasional #3 food that has food chunks, but that has not been very successful...read they eat for a little bit and then spontaneously decide they hate this food and start spitting it out. I am a sucker for the little food that promises that it is perfect for little hands learning to feed and dissolves in the mouth. Therefore I have purchased a ton of those little snacks. We have also tried a few more fruits (banana chunks-no pics yet- and ripe peaches.) All our attempts usually go the same way - Brooke loves it and Audrey may pick it up, but does not put it in her mouth nor does she really want it in her mouth.

Here is a montage of food pictures.


Audrey has decided that she will also hold her bottle.

Brooke's first and only attempt at the Biter Biscuits - what a huge mess!!

Audrey actually ate some of the Biter Biscuits though she really just likes to pose!!

Their first time eating Cheerios - Brooke very focused on capturing the little Cheerio and putting it in her mouth and Audrey just looking cute.

Eating a Mum Mum - basically a giant flat Rice Krispie.

HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT..

Just thought that this was cute...

FUN WITH FLEMINGS

Aug 9 - Aug 13, my sister and family came for a visit from Houston. The weather here was absolutely perfect - low humidity and quite comfortable temperatures (apparently we are having an unusually great August up here) unfortunately the trip coincided with the aforementioned sickness. So the girls and I did not get to do all the sightseeing that we had originally planned. Though the Flemings did venture out for some of the DC highlights without us. John David's (who is 6) favorite part was the park (one of many that we went to) that had a merry-go-round. They apparently don't make parks with these anymore. After riding it for a little while I can see why....you get so so very dizzy and the person pushing seems to bite the dust moderately frequently.

The nephews enjoying the merry-go-round.


Riding a train at one of the parks...it was the girls first time on a train and they loved it!

Visiting some of the sites in DC...the capital and the zoo.

John David was very entertaining to the girls.

SICK!!!

The pictures are totally unrelated to the post, but it seemed a shame to have all these words and no pictures.

Well the girls have officially gotten sick for the first time. I know that if you are a frequent reader of the blog you may be thinking to yourself 'there was already a post about getting sick.' Well as it turns out, those were not really sick just little sniffles and ah-choos.

Starting last Friday night, Audrey got sick. She was up almost every hour crying during the night. We thought that she must be getting a tooth. But the next morning, it was clear that she was actually getting sick. Her little nose was runny, her eyes were watery, she was coughing, she had a fever, and her little voice was hoarse (the saddest little noise I have ever heard!) Overall she was just a pathetic little sight. For the first time ever - in a non-hotel room setting - Audrey slept in our room for several nights, alternating between the pack-n-play and our bed. Shocking, I know.

I took her to the doctor on Monday and they said that she had some bronchial thing (though they actually knew the name.) They had me give her a breathing treatment there using the nebulizer. This would have gone smoothly as Audrey had pretty much used up all her energy crying during the exam - made longer by the ear wax extraction (how embarrassing!) and after just a few minutes of the breathing she was basically asleep. However, I was not totally prepared for all of this and made the rookie mistake of putting Brooke down on blankets to play (very proud of myself for having that so organized!) on the opposite side of the room behind the stroller. As Audrey was calming down, Brooke realized that she could not see us and therefore became hysterical. All in all, the visit was successful and Audrey seems to have rallied. Which of course means that it is time for Brooke to start to get sick. So hopefully in a few days we will all be healthy again...feeding two coughing, sneezing babies is not a fun - or neat - task!

As an aside, Brooke has been having these night terrors (my term) which may or may not be related to her being sick. It is totally bizarre. She just starts screaming which her little eyes all squinched shut. And you can't get her to open her eyes at all. Then finally all of a sudden she will just wake up. She looks at us and smiles. And must be thinking, why did my mommy come and pick me up and take me to another room...and now why is she putting me back to bed?? Hopefully this is just related to being sick or is just a phase...a really short phase.

8-8-08

I am so super behind, but I will begin my attempt to catch up with a very important day in the lives of all 4 of us Haddens: August 8.

Not only did 8-8-08 mark the opening of the Olympic games, but it was also our 10 year wedding anniversary! I know what you must be thinking, "10 years - why they must have been mere children when they got married." Indeed we were as illustrated by the picture below.

So happy belated anniversary to the best husband ever. There is no one else that I would have wanted to have by my side for these past 10 years - graduating from college, getting our first real jobs, realizing that I hated my real job, breaking my leg (doesn't sound momentous but believe me it was!), getting a new career, and of course having Audrey and Brooke! How lucky I am that you went from being a "cute boy" to the most wonderful father that the girls could ever have!

I can't wait to see what the next 10 years have in store for us!

WHAT'S NEW

Here are some cute pics of things that are new in the Hadden House:

Carpet for the playroom...we are all ready for crawling!

What a fun new toy!

How cute is Audrey wearing "little girl" clothes with her tiny little khaki shorts!!

Brooke can now feed herself her bottle...both exciting and a little sad for mommy!

Audrey is showing off two new things: her wonderful new bib (much better than the previous plastic ones) and she is eating some apple from her little mesh thing...they both really like to eat ice from the mesh bag, but we are starting with some actual food as well.

Brooke loves the new zwieback toast...Audrey is not quite as sure of it.

Audrey is showing off her new hair clip!

Here is a video of Brooke's puff eating prowess.



Here is Audrey showing her new skill of shaking things off her head.