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Tadd asked his mother if she would like to visit in the month of July. Ummmmm….she was on a plane 15 hours later. I guess that was the soonest one to California. She said when she awoke on Wednesday she would never had guessed she would be holding her grandkids the next day. Unfortunately for her she was out during the worst of the Gap Fire and had to evacuate with us for a couple of days.

Taken by the light of the lantern while the power was out

With Tadd taking a month off we finally got around to arranging the garage and finishing the twins room. It only took almost 9 months.

Reverse image of room through the mirror

Loen’s side

Derby’s side

UPDATES

• Loen: As you may have seen from the previous post our little girl got even girlier with earrings. She cut her first tooth last week. She is a slobbering drooly mess lately. Not to mention the fact that she has been spitting up. She NEVER used to spit up but we think she is sticking her fingers too far back in her mouth when she chews on them.  We were told that preemies can have a problem with that because they have had tubes down their throats before. She still is indifferent regarding solid food. We have been trying her once a week and it was a fight to get a tablespoon down. So we just let it go because there is no real rush in her eating solids. She has gotten quite good at rolling and picking things up. She will actually roll over to Derby, take his binker, silkie, etc, then roll back to her side again. That is the main reason they have been moved to their cribs. That and the fact I noticed Derby had some how wiggled himself 90 degrees so he was able to kick Loen repeatedly in the head. I moved him back to his side and within minutes he was doing it again The first night we put them in their own cribs I was sad. They felt so far away from me, I got up like 5 times just to make sure they were okay. The next night I was tired and Derby decided to get me up 5 times just so I would put the binker back in his mouth. I will be happy when he learns how to do that himself!

“Derby watcha got there?”

“Hmmmm I think I need to try it”

“I’m just making sure it is clean first”

“Chewy AND delicious”

• Derby: My little chunker. Derby is also teething and likes to gnaw on his thumb. We haven’t noticed any teeth cut through yet. Oh twins and teething, it has made for many an interesting night. While he kicks butt when it comes to eating rice cereal he is delayed in other areas. The vision specialist came to reassess Derby after a couple of months. She noticed that he seems to have a harder time of focusing than he did before. He will turn towards familiar things such as my face or voice but will turn away from unfamiliar sights or toys. They were saying that it takes so much energy for him to try and focus that he may just get frustrated and give up. That may explain why he doesn’t try to grasp toys or if you put them in his hand he just lets go. We are really hoping with the surgery next month Derby will make some real strides developmentally.On the other hand there is the possibility it may not be his eyes, he could just be delayed and that makes me feel uneasy. I wondered what else we can do to try and help him but the child specialist said we are doing fine.

This is where having micropreemies gets sketchy. You don’t know of long term problems till…..the long term. Are we out of the woods for cerebral palsy, autism, ADHD, etc? You have to just wait it out and see. I remember being ecstatic about something regarding the twins while they were still in the NICU. I think I said something like they were acting like normal newborns. A nurse very gently told me while they were doing good that day, you would still have to watch if they are hitting or missing their milestones as they developed at home. That is what we have been doing with the help of the child specialist who comes weekly The program in Santa Barbara is made to assess children at risk and to get them the proper help in areas they need it. The goal is to have them caught up to full term children by the time they are 3 years of age. On the other hand having micropreemies means you get to enjoy them being babies longer, you’ve got to look for a silver lining where you can find it!

Derby tried homemade sweet potatoes for the first time. I tried to get organic but everyone seemed to be out. A produce guy told Tadd they wouldn’t be in for 3 weeks. I guess he can a have a pesticide potato just this once. I figured since I am home and don’t work I should be making their baby food. Ask me how it is going in few weeks when I am overwhelmed with making organic homemade baby food.

Not too sure if he likes it

Daddy doing circus tricks during his lunch break
Derby: “This time I’m first!”

Derby talking

Discussing important things on the McKenzie Sibling agenda

Practicing their “I’m so irresistible, buy me a prize” look

Any closer and you could see the snot up their nose

Loen likes to make spit bubbles lately