August Nights

Love August nights in Colorado. Photo taken about an hour before a minor thunderstorm rolled through and just after I put the boys to bed. So peaceful.

Good Times

Working Mama-hood

Today was my first day back at school... and I survived. I did shed a few tears as I told the boys to be good for Grandpa and Grandma and headed out the door. I'm lucky to teach with some of my best friends at a great school, which made a world of difference. I can't imagine having to return to a job that you really don't enjoy. I printed off the following picture collage to take to school. (I love how this turned out.)

Plus I received this texted picture via my mom while I was at school.

I thought the blurred legs was a good sign; lots of wiggling = happy babies!

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Lens, Learning, Lemon, and Lots of Water

I bought this 50 mm lens after admiring the pictures that my college friends were taking of their daughter. My friend said it's been great for portrait pictures, especially in low light. I agree! Here are a few of the shots I've gotten so far:




In the first three of the above pictures, the boys were working on "tummy time". They are doing great and I predict that they'll be rolling over any day now. Of course, it also helps to give them motivation... like having the Rockies game on TV:

(Post Edit: Despite my fondness of TV, we do not park the boys in front of it. So no need to turn us into protective services. In fact, I'm surprised the cable company hasn't called to see if everything's ok.)
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More answers to your questions (Thanks!):
Do the boys have "assigned seats" in the car?
Not yet. So far we've been randomly placing them in the car. However, after Reid christened one of the car seats when we were at the Village Inn, I started placing him in that same car seat. It has the blue dog toy hanging from the handle. (Aiden's has an orange dog.) Reid tends to drool a little more than Aiden, so on the way back from Cheyenne I switched Reid to the seat in front of me so I would be able to mop him up.
In the stroller?
No and yes.
In the stroller frame that holds their car seats, I usually randomly place them. If one of them is sleeping when I get them out of the car, then I place him farther away from me. If one is fussier, I place him closer to me.
In their BOB jogging stroller, I always put Aiden on the left and Reid on the right. (As you're looking at the stroller from the front.) The boys and I often take an afternoon stroll over to my parents' house to get a change of scenery. They LOVE the ceiling fan in their family room. I plan on taking full advantage of this before they gain their mobility and lose interest. As we were leaving their house this afternoon, Reid christened the BOB stroller with some spit-up. I was able to clean it up with no problems, but he has now secured his stroller location.
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Made this Glazed Lemon Pound Cake tonight. Yum!

1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Rind of one lemon (grated zest)
Glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the milk and eggs, blend together. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture and blend. Add lemon rind. Pour into loaf pan and bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Remove pan to wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Using a wooden chopstick or similar tool, poke holes into the cake approximately every inch. While still in pan and slightly warm, drizzle the top with glaze. Once cool, remove from pan.

Glaze: 1/4 cup sugar and juice of one lemon plus a little pulp; mixed together.

[Illustration by Lisa Orgler]
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My poor alma mater, Iowa State is flooded, as well as my aunt and uncle's nearby farm. Hoping for a speedy clean-up.

Four Generations

On Sunday, the boys took their first road trip. My dad, Aiden, Reid, and I drove up to Wyoming to visit my Grandma Starrs who lives in Cheyenne.

Four generations (Photo taken: August 8th, 2010):

Great Grandma Starrs with Aiden, then Reid:




Aiden with my Aunt Charlene; Aiden and Reid with my Uncle Bill (my dad's brother):




Mother and Son:

The boys were great and have now been in 3 states!



So long, Wyoming! Until next time...

Smile : )

Progress

I'm still working on deleting old files and photos on my computer to create space to download current pictures from my camera. I have some 3-month pictures that I will share in a future post.

For now I have our official, unofficial growth stats:
Aiden is 23 1/2 inches and weighs 13 pounds, while Reid is 25 inches and weighs 13.4 pounds! It's amazing to think that they now weigh more than twice their birth weights!

They continue to give us the cutest smiles, are working on holding their heads up at tummy time, and talking my ears off. Of course, I don't quite understand them, but I thoroughly enjoy our conversations.

Perhaps the development I'm most excited about... they are thumb-suckers! A couple of books suggested ending the use of pacifiers cold-turkey at 3 months. I think it timed out well because the boys were starting to discover and suck on their hands at that point. I am a proud (former) thumb-sucker and it will be nice for us not to have to keep track of pacifiers any more. (By the way, Aiden seems to prefer his right thumb, while I've noticed Reid usually works on his left fist/thumb.)


Another benefit of thumb-sucking is the the ability to self-sooth at nap time. I'm still working hard trying to synchronize their naps. It's actually going well. I try to watch for signs of tiredness (yawning, glassy eyes, loss of interest in playtime, fussiness, etc.) I then take the boys upstairs to the nursery and put them in their cribs. If they're not too tired, I read to them while they are lying in their cribs. If they seem pretty tired when I get upstairs, then I tuck them in and leave the room. This works for Aiden, but poor Reid is still struggling to settle down on his own. I try to give him a chance to settle down on his own. After 5-10 minutes I go back in to hold/rock him to sleep. Tonight when I put them to bed, Reid woke up when I put him in the crib. After a few minutes he started crying, so I gave him some time to cry. After a few minutes, he suddenly stopped and eventually drifted off to sleep. Hopefully he'll be able to start doing that at nap time as well. I was thankful I had the video monitor so I could watch Reid and make sure he wasn't crying because he had spit up, etc.
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The boys and Grandpa Starrs at Best Buy: