A day of costumes, candy and fun...

At the end of the day, Faye was just tuckered out. Here she is taking a break from handing out candy. Yes, I dressed them up on Halloween. Even though it was just the three of us (Ed had to work the 6 Corners Monster Film Fest - a big hit by the way!) and even though we didn't get that many trick-or-treat'ers, I dressed them up. Everyone who saw them oohed and aahed, so it was worth it in my book.

I did dress up Lenny but he spent most of his time in the jumpin' Jimmy swing so this afterwards picture is all I have of his costume from today. If you haven't seen the previous post, please do scroll down and see the kids in their costumes.


Here's Lenny and Faye from earlier today. They're definitely getting bigger and stronger everyday. Faye even rolled over yesterday, FINALLY!!! However, I'm not sure if I can count it, since I helped her and she hasn't done it since, even with prompting. Oh, well, we'll just keep trying. Faye's no dummy; she's not going to work harder than she has to!

Halloween 2006

I know, I know... we're a week early. But I've been dying to dress these two up and I finally had a chance this afternoon. Aren't they cute!!!! I know I'm insanely into this and of course I think my children are adorable, but come on... they are, aren't they?

As usual, Lenny loved having his picture
taken . . .









Faye did really well while she was next to
Lenny. . .









But when things stretched out too long, I had one angry pumpkin on my hands!
What are you going to do? Well, I hope you all enjoy the photos!

Let them eat . . . prunes?

Yes, prunes. Lenny and Faye have moved on up to cereal and fruits recently. Lenny has been eating cereal for a few weeks now, but when we were at the doctor's last, they suggested Faye might enjoy oatmeal (since the rice cereal wasn't sitting to well with her). We gave it a try to magnificent results.

Faye LOVES eating quasi-solids. Since they're both such fans of cereal, we decided to give fruits and veggies a try, starting with prunes. Both kids enjoyed they're first fruit serving as you can see from the pictures. They seemed startled by the difference in flavor and texture to their normal cereal, but they both ate it up with gusto! It's hard to believe in just a couple of weeks they'll be 6 months old! Time certainly does fly.

Pajama party and assorted news

Here are Lenny and Faye in the pajamas that Nana and Grandpa Boyle bought them in Colorado (visiting Brian Jr.). Lenny and Faye got to spend the night over at the Boyle house on Tuesday evening while Ed and I went to see King Lear at the Goodman theatre. The kiddies totally loved thier night over at Nana and Grandpa Boyle's house and they can't wait to go and spend the weekend. It seemed like Mom and Brian enjoyed themselves, too.

The best part (for me) was that Faye kept to her sleep schedule which means she slept from 9pm until 2am. Faye is now sleeping about 6 - 7 hours a night and we're SO PROUD of her. This is a big leap for Faye (and her no longer SO tired parents).

Faye and Lenny went to their NICU followup yesterday (Thursday) where they were seen by Oral and Physical therapists. Everything appears to be going well, although Ed and I are not quite sure why all these therapists NEED to be evaluating the kids. We know they were born early and that they were in the NICU for a while, but seriously, these kids are normal, healthy babies. And even though Faye got a clean bill of theraputic health (although there's some concern about her not turning over yet, to which I just have to say - Get Over It!!!), appearantly Lenny has some "subtle" physical therapy issues.

I have to say that I've been somewhat frustrated with most of my experiences with these therapists. They've all been very nice and very helpful, but it's almost as if they can't let us out of their office without something being wrong. To my mind there is nothing wrong with Lenny, but the PT thinks he's got a slightly flat head on one side and she's concerned that he's compensating for that by favoring one side of his body. In my opinion it's all balogna! I watch this kid every day and the only thing he favors is rolling back and forth on the floor with abandon.

SO.... sorry to rant, but I do get tired of these pseudo-issues that only come up when we're at a specialist's office. By the by... our pediatrian thinks they're both healthly little clams. So we'll see what will go on next. But with any luck we won't need to keep seeing these "quacks" and I won't need to keep ranting into cyberspace!

A trip to the zoo

Yesterday I took Lenny and Faye to the zoo for the first time. My bestfriend, Paula, and I have been itching to take our kids out together all summer and while I know it's fall, we're just happy to have made this outing work. After a couple of reschedulings, we wound up getting a perfect fall day: not too warm, not too cool and plenty of sunshine. It was really a glorious day.

We went to Lincoln Park zoo, which I hadn't been to in ages and I have to say it truly is a great zoo. We paid to park ($22, ouch!) but the only other things we paid for were a couple of drinks and ice creams as the zoo allows you to bring your own lunch. So overall it wasn't too expensive (especially with two adults and four kids!). Plus they have beautiful enclosures and habitates for the animals.

As you might expect, Lenny and Faye were about as excited by the zoo as they would be by a walk around the park, but they did enjoy looking around and being outside. They were so well behaved, I'm sure Paula thinks I'm nuts when I tell her how fussy they can get. They spent the day cooing, looking around and napping. Perfect!

Plus they were so excited to be out of their car seats when we got home that evening that they played on the floor until bedtime. What great kids!

Pictures will be coming soon.

BOUNCE!!

So today we opened up a new toy: the bouncer swing! Boy did Lenny love this!! I don't know if you can tell by the look on his face in these pictures but he was thrilled at the prospect of 1) "standing" on his own and 2) bouncing up and down. He laughed and laughed!












Faye also tried the bouncer out and she seemed to enjoy it as well. I was a little surprised, because she doesn't always like toys like this but she even took a few tentative bounces. Way to go, Faye!!

Not much new...

So as the post heading implies not a lot new has happened in the past couple of days. Faye has watched Lenny roll around the floor all day for days but is not appearing any more interested in rolling herself than before. I tried to get her interested by rolling her back and forth myself and she was DEFINITELY not interested in that. Well, what are you going to do?

On a brighter note for Faye, she's been extremely more happy these days. We can't decide if it's because I'm no longer drinking caffinee (I cut it out without even realizing it) or if it's because her nap schedule has gotten more regular, but she has become one happy, smiling, chatty girl! Which is WONDERFUL. The picture above is of her in her barnyard gym. She's figured out that pulling on the lamb or the pig will get the music going and she's having quite a lot of fun being in control.

As for Lenny, he's just rolling along (pun intended). The picture above is of him eating his cereal. As you can see he's a little bit of a mess eater, but he does eat with so much enthusiasm! His favorite thing to do lately is to zurburt (make a raspberry) while eating, sending cereal all over mommy's glasses. He thinks that's just the height of humor and frankly I find it hard not to laugh along with him, because I keep getting surprised by it. You would think that I would learn by now, but...

Anyway, everyone's happy and healthy and that's what's important. We have a busy week next week, so hopefully I'll have more to write about. With any luck we'll be going to the zoo on Monday, so check back next week for pictures of Faye wrestling a lion (just kidding)!