Our Favorite Books

While Mark has generally liked reading books more than Jack has, lately they both have really been crazy about books.  Every day when we get home from daycare, they go right to the bin with the books and each grabs their favorite book.  The first thing we all do now is read their books.  It is so cute.  Here is a picture of each boy with their favorite book.

My favorite book is "Freight Train" - Jack

My favorite book is "first 100 words" - Mark

Mark, look at the red caboose.  This book is awesome! - Jack

You think that is cool, check out these animals in my favorite book! - Mark

18 month birthday

Saturday, the boys turned 18 months old.  It is hard to believe that a year and a half ago, the boys were born.  As someone told me the following motto, which we know is true:

   Days are long, but weeks are fast.

The boys had a good day on Saturday.  We played a lot in the house and then they wanted to go out to eat for their half-birthday.  We said sure.  So we went to their favorite restaurant, Red Robin.  Here they are at dinner.

Mommy, I need some more food or I am going to get the waitress to our us some mac and cheese. - Mark

18 month checkup

On Friday, we went to the doctor for the boys’ 18 month checkup. The boys are developing as they should be. The doctor was pleased with the different foods the boys eat, as well as the way they showed off for her. The boys danced and also gave her a hug. Then, to top it off, they gave each other a hug. She said it was the cutest thing she had ever seen. Here are the measurements for the boys:

Jack:
Height: 31.5 inches -- 30th percentile
Weight: 25 lbs 6 oz  -- 50th percentile
Head circumference: > 97th percentile

Mark:
Height: 29.5 inches -- 3rd percentile
Weight: 20 lbs 3 oz -- <3rd percentile
Head circumference: 73rd percentile

The first Wet Willie

This past weekend, the boys were playing and Mark’s index finger was wet.  Somehow, he thought it would be funny to put it into Jack’s ear.  So he did.  They both thought it was funny.  They laughed about it every time that Mark gave Jack a Wet Willie.  It was hysterical.

Jack, hold on.  Let me give you one more Wet Willie.

Not the ideal start to 2011

Once we got back to Raleigh, we had a nice relaxing day running some errands and watching New Year’s Day football games. That night, as Mommy and Daddy turned out the light, Jack woke up and started crying really hard. When we checked on him, he was really laboring to breathe. We had seen this symptom a year earlier. So we took Jack to the ER a little after midnight. We were admitted around 4:30 AM. We thought Jack still just had bronchialitis, but it was worse. He had viral pneumonia. The doctor told us that it sounds worse than it really was. The main reason we were admitted was that Jack’s oxygen level was not at a high enough level in the ER, especially when he was sleeping soundly.


During the day, he improved greatly. We turned the oxygen off of Jack after lunch and monitored his O2 level throughout the afternoon. It stayed at a high enough level for him to be discharged before dinner. That was great news. When we got home, the most excited person in the house was Mark, who had REALLY missed his brother the entire day. He had fun with Granna and Grandpa, but they could sense he really missed and wondered where Jack was.

After a non-descript Monday, outside of our heat going out on us, we went to bed Monday night. Around 5 AM, Mark woke up really laboring to breathe. Heather and I were surprised, but we weren’t surprised. So we got ready and took Mark to the ER around 5:30 AM. Mark was given several breathing treatments, just like his brother. The difference was that we got Mark’s symptoms treated early enough. The breathing treatments were effective and he was discharged from the ER around lunchtime.
With their hospital trips and illnesses, the first week in January was a continuation of the previous two weeks. Those and this past week have made for a very long and rough three weeks. Finally, everyone is healthy and it is a hopefully a good sign for the rest of the year.

Random pictures from December

To finish the year, here are some pictures from the last month:

It's Christmas time.  We are really happy.

As we are twins, we can sit in the same seat and be happy.

I love my brother.  - Mark

Check out our fancy Chirstmas outfits.  We look so cute. 

Are you sure that Santa Claus will come to our house tonight?  I hope so.  - Jack

Before we can go and play in the snow, we need our energy so it is time to drink our "Gatorade."  We love some milk. 

Jack, hold on a minute.  I have to send this email to my friends in our daycare class.  - Mark

This is our house on the day after Christmas when we got 7.5 inches of snow.

Christmas with Mimi and Poppy

As we discussed earlier, our planned Christmas trip to Kingsport to see Mimi and Poppy did not go off as planned.  The stomach virus circulated the family members and we wound up going to Kingsport on Wednesday the 29th.  It was very good to see Mimi and Poppy.  Unfortunately, the Morgans had already left and were getting ready to go see Uncle Jarett's family in Kentucky so we were unable to see them...outside of calling them on Skype.

We had a good time in Kingsport for the most part.  The boys really enjoyed exploring the house.  They seemed to remember it from Thanksgiving and started playing and having a really good time.  However, on Thursday, Jack started getting a cough and running on fever.  And Mark had maintained a small low grade fever ever since he had his stomach virus the previous week.

So on Friday morning (New Year's Eve), we took the boys to the urgent care.  After waiting a couple of hours, we were finally seen by a nurse practitioner.  We expected to hear that Jack had a cough and that Mark maybe had an ear infection.  We were a little off.  Jack had bronchialitis (but not RSV), while Mark had a double ear infection and tonsillitis.  Are you kidding me?  So, with the boys' history of RSV, we decided to go back to Raleigh that night to be on the safe side instead of going back the next day.  We hated leaving Mimi and Poppy early but they understood.

Here is a picture of the boys in front of the Christmas tree:

Can we open the presents now...PLEASE?!?!?!?!?

 

Christmas Morning

We just realized that we forgot to blog about Christmas morning. Christmas morning started out like an ordinary day...the boys didn't know any differently. However, they quickly realized that something was different, as our routine was not the norm. Typically, the boys play in the bonus room upstairs in the morning and have some milk and cheerios. However, on Christmas morning, we went downstairs right after waking up to see if Santa had been by for a visit.

Jack and Mark must have been really good this year. Santa had definitely stopped by and brought lots of presents for them. Their biggest gifts were a table and chairs and a slide! They also got a parking garage and an emergency station (a toy with a fire department, police station and hospital all in one) and lots of new bath toys. In their stockings they got some new sippy cups (with straws, which they LOVE), some new forks and spoons, Veggie Tales CDs, and their very favorite yogurt melt snacks. They had so much fun playing with all of their new toys. The slide and table and chairs were really big hits! 

We had so much fun with the boys. We didn't really know how much they would really get into Christmas this year, but they loved it. And, watching them have so much fun and watching their faces light up with excitement was SO much fun for us.  We really enjoyed the morning!

Granna and Grandpa came down to see what Santa had brought. And, Granna cooked us a big breakfast which was very yummy.  We are looking forward to our new Christmas morning tradition for years to come!

Here are some pictures of the morning...

As soon as we got downstairs, we put them down and off they went to see all their presents from Santa!

Mark checking out the parking garage!

The slide was a big hit for sure!

I bet they went down it 100 times in the first couple of hours!

Jack checking out his stocking!

Mark finally got around to checking out his stocking too!

Mark checking out his bag from Santa...it was stuffed with more toys!

Mark really liked the emergency station and all the buttons, sirens and lights on it!

Jack and Mark take a break on the bottom stair after playing hard for awhile!