Early Days

The first time Jehu was taken out for me to hold. His arms were smaller than an adult's fingers and he felt like he weighed nothing at all.

The kiss. Well...I think Emma was trying to bite Jehu's nose but I guess we'll never know. Daddy is actually holding both babies when this shot is taken.

The first Christmas was spent in the NICU. One of our nurses, Leslie, put a red bow in Emma's hair. She was on the vent and had an IV in her head. Later she graduated to the C-PAC...notice she covers her mouth during a yawn. Miss Manners from the beginning!

These are some of my favorite early photos of the Doozies. I've just been going through pics on a flash drive and thought I'd put some up on the blog. :)

Jocelyn usually had Jehu at night. I knew he was in good hands on her shift and she would often leave cute polaroid photos for me in the drawer of his isolette. We still refer to her as Jehu's "first girlfriend." Meredith was with us in the delivery room and helped whisk the Doozies off to the NICU. She frequently had Emma during her shift. Shortly after our arrival in the NICU she arranged for the Doozies to be in the same room once a spot became available by Emma. Initially Jehu was in Room 1 which is reserved for the sickest infants. Emma was in Room 3. Both Jocelyn and Meredith were so encouraging throughout our NICU stay and we are grateful for their special care of our little ones.

Early photos from home. It took a long time for the Doozies to get hair...same for eye lashes. Today Emma has extremely long, beautiful lashes.

One Day at a Time

Pop has gone home from the hospital so Joe and his mom are getting into a routine of daily care for him. Pop's been in the hospital since April 2nd with pneumonia...he started at Lexington Medical Center where he was on a ventilator for several weeks and in ICU for what seemed like forever. He was transferred from there to Healthsouth to receive physical, occupational and speech therapy. During that stay he had to be admitted to the ER at Richland, then their ICU, Heart Hospital and regular ward. From there he went to InterMedical at Baptist and back to Healthsouth. I honestly don't know how my husband and mother-in-law have survived. Sitting in the hospital day after day and feeling helpless takes a toll on you but they have done extraordinarily well. Pop continues to improve and hopefully he'll be back to his old self in short order! Here are some pics from Doozie visits to the hospital.

In other Doozie news...our speech therapist recently brought us some clothes for Jehu. Both kids had to try on EVERY piece of clothing in the bag. I think Emma looks quite fetching in Hawaiian prints. :)

Emma and Jehu have toyed with the idea of using a potty; although, as you can tell by the pictures, Jehu doesn't grasp the concept of taking off your pants first. :)

Emma has enjoyed the kiddie pool we have on the deck a couple of times this summer. Jehu hasn't gotten bold enough to get in...he will stick his foot in the water but that's about it. Emma has several bathing suits and has recently demanded that she be allowed to sleep in them at night instead of in jammies!

"Daddy Fik it"

Emma says the cutest thing when something breaks or tears - "Daddy fik it". I just love to hear it. It's funny because Jehu can say "fix" but she can't. Same thing with "rabbit". Almost a month has gone by since my last entry and we've been busy. Aunt Kiki went with us to Edventure and we had a blast. The favorite by far was The Little Pig grocery store. Emma put every donut in her buggy while Jehu picked out a wide variety of items...paper plates, bleach, frozen juice and dog food. They had a fantastic time scanning the items and pressing the buttons on the register. We could have stayed there all day. Other areas of great interest were the fire truck, bongos and a wooden boat. We ended our visit with a trip to the lower level for happy meals we purchased through the virtual drive through. So neat! Just pick up the phone and talk via telemonitor with the drive through attendant, pay and a few minutes later your happy meals arrive via courier. Took me a while to get over that. :)

Both kids are now opening our oven door and saying "pizza, pizza". This is something Jehu started quite a while ago and Emma has picked it up. I've never put a pizza in the oven...I always use the toaster oven for the small pizzas they eat. We've attached cords around the oven door to the cabinet doors so they can't open it all the way and stand on it to reach the stove top.

I have to be very vigilant in watching the "doozies" as they've both discovered that they can push their highchairs and climb to reach countertops, cubbards or any other surface not normally accessible. Not only do they use highchairs but also scooters, boxes and anything else they can find. I think we need a membership to My Gym!!!!! They've also discovered pot holders...which for some reason are fascinating.
Aunt Kiki kept the little ones so that Joe and I could go out for a celebration of my birthday, our anniversary and his birthday. We went to see the third Pirates movie and ate at Longhorn's Steakhouse. Real creative, I know, but we did enjoy a quiet dinner and the chance to see a show.

Another month of daycare has passed and Emma still moans "no daycare" as we pull up to the building. Jehu got pushed down and pinned to the ground by two of his classmates - luckily he wasn't hurt. They've experienced a petting zoo with snakes, a raccoon, zebra, camel and various other critters and this week they will have a visit with clowns. I'm worried that they might be a bit scared of the clowns but we'll see.

Today, as part of our July 4th celebration, we took the Doozies to the mall for pizza pizza, ice cream and a ride on the carousel. They were a hit with all the over 50 crowd who typically exclaimed "what curly hair!" upon seeing them. Emma rode the giraffe on our second carousel ride like a seasoned rider. Joe's birthday is actually tomorrow but we'll celebrate this evening since we're both off. I'm not sure if he'll like his gift...we'll find out soon.

My coworker Nancy had a little boy this week and he is soooo precious. All 8.7 pounds of him! He has brown hair and the cutest little fingers!

Toddlers and Crisco Don't Mix - Just so You Know!

Toddlers and Crisco don't mix! Ok...so I was trying to get my son out of the refrigerator...he LOVES to take everything out and put it back in again...and I opened the cubbard which is usually closed with a babyproofing device. He took out a BIG bottle of Crisco (1 gallon) vegetable oil and opened it. The cap doesn't really screw onto the bottle. You can imagine what happened next. Let's just say that his hair will be conditioned for the next couple of years and there's a patch of my kitchen floor that will ALWAYS be slick. We had an emergency bath. His clothes and mine are in the washer as I type this entry. :) Emma has found a new pasttime..jumping from their little tikes picnic table into the recliner. It is soooo much fun!


I don't know why the text above is underlined...can't seem to correct it.

Slacker!

I know I haven't updated this blog regularly. Oh well, some things have gotten in the way. The little ones are now in daycare three days each week and the change has gotten mixed reviews. While I think they like the activities and playing with other kids they would much rather I stayed with them at daycare all day too! As soon as we arrive Emma begins her usual "no daycare" routine and Jehu usually chimes in. When I pick them up Jehu is usually looking out of the door and he begins to cry...does that mean he has missed me terribly or that he would rather stay there? Each day I come home with their newest works of art: a purple hexagon, a brown mouse, a clock, etc. They've painted with finger paints and kool-aid (?) and they've even worked with glue! The one I treasure most though is their handprints with a Mother's Day poem that I've had to hide because Emma would see it and yell "hold it signing time!" I guess she thought it was a DVD cover. Emma has also started reading books to an imaginery class. Too cute! Before daycare I was home with them for about 4 weeks when my father-in-law was first hospitalized and during this time Jehu became addicted to The Wiggles. I really don't know how much more of Greg, Anthony, Murray and Jeff I can handle. Where did they get Jeff anyway...he's always sleeping because they don't want him to talk! What's worse is Henry the Octopus. His voice is driving me CRAZY! Believe me I don't have far to go! Why couldn't the octopus be silent like Wags the Dog. Even Dorothy the Dinosaur's giggle doesn't offend as much. Those of you with small children surely understand my angst. I think we should all get together and create a new kids group...The Giggles. A few girls dressed in peach, green, pink and lavender who sing and dance with their pet dog Princess , and their friends "Sales" the shopping bag, "Bling" the pink diamond and "Melody" their baby doll. To include all those moms who are in to teaching their infants signs we could sing with signs. :) Songs could include odes to chocolate, suv's, and other fun topics. Sound ridiculous? Have you watched the Wiggles? Well, now you see just how close to insanity I am.

This blog is about my children (and the rest of the gang), not necessarily the state of my mind, so here's the latest. Emma can sing: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald, Are You Sleeping? and her ABC's. She can also count to ten. Jehu's working on Twinkle Twinkle and his ABC's. Lately they have realized that they are brother and sister...together forever...and that they can do certain things to aggravate each other. They love to take each other's toys, sippy cups, pacifiers, etc. They are truly sweet, sweet children BUT they can have their moments. They are still going through the "hold you Mama" phase - which I love. :) Since Pop has been in the hospital they will say "Papa sick" when Daddy leaves the house - they know he's going to visit him. Tonight they both did their own version of Scottish dancing to "Wobbly, Wobbly Dance" (you guessed it - a Wiggles ditty). And your heart would just melt if you heard them say "I love you". Joe and I hope that Pop will get better soon so he and Grandmama can resume taking care of the little ones while I work. I didn't mention that Pop has been in the hospital since the beginning of April did I? ICU twice with pneumonia and fluid around his heart. He's getting better and stronger so hopefully he'll be home soon! Joe and I have settled in to a new routine of taking care of the kids and going to the hospital - we don't get to see each other much except on the weekend.

On a completely different note - check out www.amazingtrips.blogspot.com when you get a chance. It's about a couple that had triplets 2 1/2 years ago and are about to have their 4th baby - which was a complete surprise. I get a kick out of it. Makes me think about having another...well it's usually good for a laugh or two.

In other news our neice Katie graduated from high school on June 1st - her 18th birthday and we are excited ab out her studying at USC in the fall. Go Cocks! (Sorry Kristy!) We recently had lunch and she was full of questions about orientation and move in day. What an exciting time!


We are soooooo excited that Aunt Kiki is out of school so she can visit more often! We'll definitely have to hit Edventure and the Zoo! Speaking of Aunt Kristy...can you believe she nominated me for one of Lexington's most beautiful moms inside and out?!?!?!? And, I was selected and featured with two other moms in the May issue of Lexington Life Magazine. What an honor! Many times I feel like I'm not as good a parent as I should be but I try to be patient with my little ones and teach them new things each day. Before I found out about the magazine article I was speaking to our Early Interventionist about the book "I was a great mom until I had kids" or something like that. We are both super critical of how we are with our children. I love mine with all my heart and hope that as they grow they will focus on the good things in their upbrining and forgive any shortcomings I might have. They are the greatest gift I've ever been blessed to receive.

The first Saturday in May we went to the NICU graduation party and visited with some of our nurses including Donna and Jocelyn and fellow graduates. It was good to catch up on how everyone was doing and share our story. The last most of them had heard Jehu was going to be blind in both eyes...they were very excited to learn of his progress. :)

Since my last blog entry Joe was offered a job in an exotic far away land...the Congo. That's right...Africa. After giving apresentation on how our state collects taxes and funds various programs the Governor of Kinshasa tried to recruit Joe to help his country. Of course he addressed the safety issues and assured Joe that any unrest he may have heard about was many miles away from Kinshasa but that's not what travel advisories say. Needless to say we won't be moving to Africa anytime soon.

I've had to remove my silverware from the drawers because Jehu kept reaching in to grab some...one morning he ran into the den with a steak knife while our EI was here. Talk about scary! I've also removed all of my items from the bathroom and replaced them with towels since curious hands kept opening the cabinets. The kids continue to pretend anything is a telephone...a straw, beanie baby, etc. Here are the little ones having a tea party at a makeshift table. One of our moments of detente (sp?).

Aunt Kiki went with us to get our Easter pictures taken. This year the kids loved the bunnies...especially "Batman".

Binky, our dog, has taken up permanent residence behind our sofa. Emma is just tooooo much for her!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas for the Doozies was very exciting! For 3 1/2 hours we opened presents and weren't even finished. Emma and Jehu wanted to open a present then play with it for a while so we took our time. Christmas Day was so much better than visiting with Santa...especially for Emma. Maybe next year she will sit on his lap! Favorite items included: Fifi (the poodle), a play food set, Mr. Potatoe Head and friends, trikes and a jack-in-the-box. The twins took a break from fighting over plastic spoons and spatulas in order to fight over the "match the cookies game" and farm animal figures. For the first time Emma was able to say "Grandmamma" and "Thank you Daddy". Jehu loves the Christmas tree and asks for the lights to be turned on each morning when he gets up. :) Singing Rock A Bye Baby has become a highlight of each day as the twins add more and more words.

Aunt Kristy!

Aunt Kristy came over last night for about three hours while mommy and daddy went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Jehu and Emma loved her visit and want her to come again soon! ;) The evening was filled with high-fives, low-fives, hair brushing, playing chase, new songs and oatmeal creme pies! The latter was daddy's suggestion in case they became unruly. Aunt Kristy said she just wanted to treat them. This morning the children wanted to know where Aunt Kristy went and when she'd be back! Emma thinks Aunt Kristy is beautiful (which she is inside and out) and Jehu thinks she's "cool." :)

Our special visitors at Hotel Richland

Throughout our four month stay at "Hotel Richland" we had lots of special visitors. Visiting was limited to parents and grandparents. Grandmom and Papa came almost every day to check on Emma and Jehu. Towards the end of our stay they even began bottling feeding the little ones. Grandmama Wanda visited a lot in the beginning of our stay then had to return to Oklahoma. Grandpapa Bob was able to visit after he returned from Bulgaria. Grandaddy and Grandmama Carol came right before Christmas for a quick visit. So much attention! After both children were in Special Care we were able to arrange for Aunt Katie to see them.