My world is about to change…see video below filmed today…

A little post and new pics…

Hi Everyone – I am always amazed at how fast a week and then some goes by.  Said goodbye to another weekend last night.  A beautiful one that reached the 80s yesterday.  I am sure the day will come that I won’t be as sad for Monday to come, for many reasons, but mostly because it is so different waking up with Josh here and waking up with him already gone for work while Zoe and Jude are screaming at me.  Yawn – Jude is still not sleeping through the night and I have to attribute it to things going on in that little brain.  I don’t have the heart for sleep training yet even though she does not eat much at night and I think she could go right back to sleep.  We are down to only 10-15 mins – the question is always…can I trick my mind/body into going back to sleep at 3:00 a.m.?  Last night I couldn’t…yawn…so I tossed and turned until 6 a.m. when they tried to wake up for the day.  I fed them and convinced them they could use sleeping until 8 a.m. since they went to bed later last night.  So at least I start my week now sitting here talking to you in silence and enjoying a slow cup of coffee…with Bo laying against me of course…LOL.  He treasures the silence when it comes too.

Jude has moved to pulling up against things a couple of days ago to trying to move from one object to another, although she is clearly not ready for this.  I am trying to prevent a disaster.  My Zoe is just the sweetest little girl you would ever meet.  A dilemma is forming.  Perky little Jude is so demanding of exercising her new talents so I am working hard to manage my time between them so Zoe doesn’t feel left out.  But that girl does not seem to care at all about competing with Jude, which secretly makes me proud.  She just smiles and goes at her own pace and no one is going to push her.  I prefer not to have a “competitive” atmosphere although down the line it will probably be inevitable.  Luckily, they seem to like their swings again, so after some play time I am able to convince them to swing a while with a toy and watch Blue Clues.  They just laugh and babble – wow – let’s you know how tricky and powerful that T.V. is…even for 7 month olds.  It is a nice option in my arsenal but I definitely watch how much it is on – let me just say though I don’t quite understand some of these kids shows, but Blues Clues is quite an intelligent little show and I find it makes me feel comfortable as I sit and watch with them and play along…crazy.

We had a major splurge this weekend.  We bought a Bob Revolution Duallie.  For those of you that don’t know this is plush double-wide jogging stroller, most prevalent in the yuppie population as Jim Maletz would probably say….so, I guess we have reached that status…heh heh.  Seriously, I had been given a used jogging stroller and it has been a lifesaver (thank you Tavi!), but it isn’t very comfortable for them and is now kind of falling apart.  We have been walking very little in the park because it is a real pain.  Josh is still doing some extra work for his old company and REI was having a big sale…when Josh mentioned getting it for his girls to make our lives easier, I was giddy to say the least!!!!!  We don’t have a car during the day and walking in the park or to the local coffee shop is about all we see beyond the house.  We got it in orange and it is amazing…yay!

Halloween is swift approaching and we are throwing our annual big Halloween Party!  Super excited!  But, it is a daunting task this year with two little ones.  So we spent the weekend working out all decor details and cleaning up/decorating the outside of the house, etc.  Still much to do but we have a plan and hopefully we will not be doing much that day – we know that it is impossible to count on anything with the girls.  By the way, we will probably get in trouble for this, but Zoe and Jude are going to be Mario and Luigi from nintendo super mario games for halloween.  They will be asleep by the party but we at least needed to take pictures.   We thought they would make very cute little italian men from a very popular video game.  Josh will be Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas and he is wearing drywall stilts so he will be between 7-8 feet tall.  My husband doesn’t do anything simple and has begun to practice walking in them.  I will post pictures.  I am boring this year, going to pull out something old from our costume bin.  Probably a generic gypsy or pirate or something.  I love doing make up but I don’t really want to scare Jude and Zoe if I have to go up and tend to them.

Well, Jude is letting me know she will not, in fact, be sleeping in today, so off I go.  Be sure to check out new pics posted yesterday on www.maletz.smugmug.com.  The best of both worlds – NY Yankees outfits from Josh’s dad and two VERY cute dresses to celebrate end of summer.  Hope you all are well – love to you!  – Betsy

Yay - one more warm day to wear our cute dresses!!!

…and 24 hours later…

…runaway train never coming back…(if anyone knows this Rod Stewart song)

This little one makes me nervous.  Obviously I am right beside her when she is “free” but she has no fear.  She will just let go of whatever she is holding onto and either reach toward me or just try to stand there like she is daring herself.  It is funny and spooky all at once.  She isn’t sleeping well – I think she is working this out in her mind ALL the time.

Jude…well, you will just have to check out this video…she is a tiny girl on a mission

7 months

I feel like I JUST wrote about being 6 months old and now Zoe and Jude are 7 months as of yesterday.  So amazing.  Much is happening daily in this household.  Jude should be on a quick path to crawling considering her activity in the last month, however,  now she would rather try to pull up and stand against things.  It is her mission all day (and night) long it seems – but if you put her on her tummy she gets on all fours and screams – have you had the pleasure of experiencing her vocal chords?  This girl is something else!  Still trying to encourage her to crawl first – need to do a lot of practicing this week – I am sure I will not be her favorite.  Zoe must be getting tired of being completely glued to the ground because now she loves to play the game where she is pulled to a standing position.  Where we couldn’t get her to put any weight on her legs a week ago, presto, she beams as if to say…”look, I can do it too!”  These girls are great eaters!  Makes a momma proud.  Current favorite is apples with oatmeal…yummy, it is my favorite too, however, sweet potatoes are darn good.  We have started “practicing” with tiny finger food chunks but most everything is still mashed or pureed, and will be for a while - paranoid mom not taking any chances.  And they don’t really understand to take the food off the tray and put it in their mouths…they mostly just squish it around.  And STILL NO TEETH!!!!  Ugh- I wouldn’t be so anxious if they were not teething so badly – something HAS to be coming in soon.  Poor girls!

As far as sleep, Zoe seems to have sleeping through the night down pat.  She has averaged 10-12 hours straight for a few days now.  Can you say 6:30 pm to 7:20 am this morning????  YEAH!!!!  ……then, well, there’s Jude… up 3 times.  Aiy yi yi!!!!!!!  Naps are improving though.  The girls instantly transitioned from three shorter naps to two longer naps this past week.  I was worried I would miss the signs – I don’t know why I worry anymore though because they make it very clear what they want to do.  Looks like we are going to evolve into 2 naps - 90 mins to 2 hours each.  Around 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.  Works for me – way better than 45 mins!

We are on a pretty great schedule now for those who are interested.  Give or take a few minutes, it is amazing how fairly exact this is.  I started out setting a schedule in the first few weeks because I had read that was the best thing to do with twins.  Then I just threw that out the window because I found they were happier, even that young, dictating the routine.  Now we are back to more of a “schedule” and they like the normalcy of it.  I know this because they are very happy babies who rarely put of a fight to take a nap and NEVER put up a fight going to bed.  It feels really good.  Right now I am that mommy that plans around naps and we don’t ever go out past bedtime, however, I can see by about 9 or 10 mos we will feel more comfortable doing things occasionally out of schedule without messing them up too bad.  It is a small sacrifice that I never understood UNTIL I became a mom.:

7:00-7:30 a.m.  Wake-up for the day, change, nurse, and play

8:00 a.m.  Breakfast solid meal (fruit/oatmeal), then more play

9:00 a.m.  Nurse and down for nap #1

11:00 a.m.  Wake, get dressed and play

12:00 p.m.  Nurse and play or take a walk

1:00 p.m.  Down for nap #2

3:00 p.m.  Wake and play

4:00 p.m.  Nurse, then back to playing

5:00 p.m.  Solid meal #2 (veggie/oatmeal or cereal)

5:30 p.m.  Bath-time

6:00 p.m.  Nurse or bottle

6:30 p.m.  Asleep for night

I did something else this week I have been wanting to do for months.  I joined a twins organization in Denver and I joined an online mom site for connecting with playgroups, activities, mom’s nights out, etc.  I also took up scrapbooking more seriously as I REALLY need a creative outlet.  So, I am out in the world and it feels SOOOO good.  I already have more mommy friends and we will be visiting the Children’s Museum this week as well as the Zoo.  The girls might be slightly young, but hey, right now it is more for me than anyone, and Josh and I really need to make more friends here in Denver.  I will have to post a few scrapbook pages when I get them finished, since I have such a supportive audience here.  Well, think I will go – will be updating this a little more frequently now that there is much more action happening with Zoe and Jude.  Time to really start using the video camera.  Hope you all are well and keeping warm.  Love to you, Betsy

Favorite moment of the days right now…”when Josh comes home from work, the girls get the BIGGEST smiles on their faces and kick and wiggle.  Then whoever gets picked up first tries to eat his face with kisses while the other one whines to be picked up.  He has to be quick on his feet.  He loves this moment.  Then after a few seconds mommy is important to them again…wink wink.”

Picture updates on www.maletz.smugmug.com as of October 10th

Video, pics, and a brag…

A few new pics on www.maletz.smugmug.com.  Video below.  Now for the brag.  I was waiting a few days to make sure this was real, but it is such a feat for me that I have to document it.  I HAVE LOST 60 LBS. OFFICIALLY SINCE GIVING BIRTH>>>>>>>>AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  Hope you are well.

New pics added to www.maletz.smugmug.com as of Sept 28

6 months old and lots of great moments

A lot has went on since my last post.  Jude and Zoe turned 6 mos old!!! EEK!!!  That also means I have been breastfeeding for 6 months.  Two important milestones for me and the girls.  We celebrated by eating a lot of chocolate (well, they had pears.)  We are full into solids now, two meals a day usually consisting if rice cereal or oatmeal with avocado, sweet potato, pear, or banana.  Green beans coming soon.  Zoe gobbles up food and will take a drink of water from a cup – Jude just plays and spits it at me then laughs.  For now I am pureeing real food and freezing it – we will see how long this lasts but so far it is easy if I take time to get it done at one time, and it is much much cheaper than buying jarred food.  We are all about couponing and saving these days…hee hee.  Of course, it is healthier and I am not working so I have given myself this task to accomplish.  Sleeping is still back and forth.  Jude is waking to feed 2x a night and now Zoe is sleeping all the way through.  This was flipped a couple weeks ago.  I think their 6 month growth spurts are happening at different times.  They are still crappy nappers and I think this just may be how it is going to be…they fall asleep so easily but I am lucky to get 45 mins 3x a day.  Their 6 months appts went great.  Zoe is 13 lbs 8 oz. and Jude is 12 lbs 10 oz.  Although Zoe feels about 5 lbs heavier, she is now less than a pound over Jude.  Zoe is 25 inches long and Jude is 24 1/2 inches long.  They are so different – it is great.  Zoe babbles all day long several vowel sounds (although they both said “mama” first and babble that constantly, especially when wanting to be picked up) – she is very very vocal and loves to try out a varied range of pitch and loudness.   Jude “talks” occasionally but lets Zoe fill the vocal space – Jude is working hard to achieve crawling.  She has started getting up on all fours now and grunts a lot.  She is very determined and needs to be moving all the time.  Zoe would rather sit back and watch her.  Both girls are sitting for several seconds unsupported but I think it will be a bit before I would walk away – always on the lookout for the topple over – although when Jude wants a toy she likes to launch her entire body at it, not thinking of the consequences. 

We finally fit into our overalls!

I had my most scary bad mommy moment.  I was changing Jude at the mall on a bench about a foot off the floor and got distracted and she flipped herself right off onto the carpeted concrete.  I still hear the thud in my mind – I NEVER thought I would let this happen and it really humbled me.  She wailed for about 1/2 second and then was concerned about getting her toy back.  I cried the next 24 hours.

Grandma Sonja came for a 4-day visit.  She had not seen the girls since they were 8 weeks old so it was truly a pleasure.  I was worried they wouldn’t be nice as they are showing signs now of stranger anxiety but we took things slow and they adapted very easily.  She helped me put them to bed all 4 nights without a fight – it was a relief and heartwarming at the same time.  She just loved them of course – it is hard to be 1000 miles away from family.  Check out all kinds of new pics on www.maletz.smugmug.com including ones with Grandma.  We had a blast and I really loved the company.

Hanging out with Grandma Sonja.

Yesterday Josh and I took our sweeties to Nederland, a mountain town about 45 mins from Denver.  This was our first drive to the mountains with them and Josh and I really enjoyed getting out of town.  We were not there long – we got hot chocolates and were able to try out some of our winter gear on the girls since it was about 45 degrees and raining up there.  The mountains have snow in the forecast this week and the Denver highs are between 54 degrees and 66 degrees.  Here comes fall – so exciting.  We had so much fun yesterday.  Check out the pics!

The family in Nederland, CO.

Fun week this week!  My mom, Grandma Nancy, comes in Wednesday night for a visit through Sunday.  Our great friend Joe Gross is getting married in Breckenridge on Saturday and we are all going to the mountains.  Grandma is brave enough to babysit while we have a night out.  We have rented a mountain house with friends and our other great friends, Luis and Molly and Joe and Jaime are coming in from Chicago.  We have been looking forward to this for a long time – jeez, I practically teared up writing this.  We are staying Friday and Saturday.  Josh is in the wedding so my mom is helping me with Zoe and Jude.  It is going to be a great great time!

Well, that is all for now – hope you all are enjoying the onset of fall – looking forward to the holiday season and to seeing many of you hopefully. Love to you all!

Two favorites…

First, new pics up on smugmug site as of today.  Just wanted to share real quick two of my favorite things right now with the girls…

1. The Audible Yawn – they both have these yawns that come with full audible vowel sounds.  It is the funniest thing – like they are announcing to the house, “okay, I guess I will go to sleep now.”  Sometimes this is followed by a scream to get up…wink wink.

2. The babbling “Mama” – to add to my distress of hearing them cry, they now both cry with audible “ma ma’s” to break my heart even more…it is still a favorite to know I am wanted.

Hope you all are having a nice week.