Chava88

Happy July!

2009-07-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

The girls had such a great time seeing their Uncle Bob and Aunt Ellie last night. They were most excited about splashing him and also getting Ellie wet too. Reese told me this morning, "I had alot of fun with Uncle Bobby". They must have a Bobby in their camp, because she won't stop calling him Bobby.
Overall the girls are obsessed with going to the Milltown Pool, and they are really trying to swim although when Lily insists on me "letting go" of her in the pool she sinks, but I hope by the end of the summer she is swimming. They have their pool cars, ie, these little floaties they sit in and kick their feet and move around. Makes things easier when I am by myself. I know, I am nuts. Going by myself but everyday when I pick them up from school, one of them says, "Mommy, we go to the big pool?". Rich and I are thinking of getting the troops up and out Saturday for a day at the beach, even if its overcast, since I have been hearing about tickets and the crazy bus all week. Hopefully the weather will hold out.
Yesterday we had to stop the bank to deposit money so this of course started a discussion about saving money. You know, to buy something you will need one day. Of course Lily tells me she wants to buy a purple car. No Mommy, not black. Purple. Then Reese says she would drive her sister to school in the purple car. Which of course makes Lily start yelling about Reese needing to get her own car.

Summer So Far

2009-06-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

Thought I would update with some fun pictures of our lovies.

For You

2009-05-27T19:50:00.001-07:00

Today

2009-04-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

My new favorite pics.

Spring!

2009-04-20T07:45:00.001-07:00

Its been awhile and I have given up on Rich posting so I will...The ladies are loving the nice weather. Its hard to get them to come inside when its nice even for dinner...which I am all for after being cooped up all winter. Fun to see what the summer is going to be like for us. I think we will be more adventurous about road trips, there are some friends we have within a 2-3 hour radius that we haven't seen that we would love to see soon! Isaac we are looking at you! I am so thankful for the Milltown pool because I am seeing some nice days spent there as well as down at Point Pleasant Beach visiting Pop. We have found the fun of rides, specifically the crazy bus, and just running around in the sand. It is going to be a fun fun summer.

Point Pleasent Beach Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Woohoo AWESOME weather. And finally they love the rides. I am going to BEG Rich for an update....I will just attach the pics. That look on Reese's face was pretty much the look on her face all day about the rides...so cute and happy.

Pretty Dresses

2009-04-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

So Lily finds her Easter Dress in the (clean) laundry basket after bath-time tonight and decides she is wearing it to bed. Fine. I am not going to argue. Reese wants jammies, is upset Lily WON'T wear jammies, but Lily is not budging. So off to bed in a sleeveless, chiffon dress and diaper. I just go in to make sure everyone is tucked in, and there is Lily, no blankets, laying on her stomach, pretty dress and diaper hanging out. Forgive me, but it looked like either she had gotten home from the prom or a wedding or whatever and just passed out in her formal-wear. Too funny.

Why oh Why

2009-03-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Me: I have to go do some school work.
Lily: Why?
Me: Mommy goes to school just like Lily. Big girl school.
Lily: Big girl school? Why?
Me: Learning is good for everyone. I have homework.
Lily: Homework? Why?
Me: Mommy needs a job to make money.
Lily: Money? Why?
Me: Go see Daddy and take a bath.

20 Things

2009-03-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

The posts have been lacking, but I feel like a video is worth 1000 words these days. In an effort to give you a better idea of where the girls are, I am giving you a list of 20 things about them today.

1. You can never have enough stickerbooks. And damn, those things are at least $10 each, times two. Keeps Lily and Reese busy for at least 15 minutes. They do have this new habit where they want YOU to find the page the sticker goes, and for those of you that are familiar with these books, you know what I mean. Its not always easy. But many times I am chased by a finger with a sticker on the end with the words FIND IT being shouted at me.

2. Dancing. Reese is the funniest and best dancer I have seen, at least when it comes to rock. Lily, on the other hand, likes to dig out a pretty dress from the princess box and twirl to twinkle twinkle by the wiggles.

3. Fruit snacks. So we got suckered into buying these at Target one day because they have Princesses, Doras, Nemos, Scooby's. How do they get away calling them "fruit snacks". These are gummy bears. Lets be honest. Luckily they are two for $3, so when Lily wants the Princess box and Reese wants Dora, we don't break the bank.

4. Painting. Water colors. At least 1/2 hour of business.

5. When you ask Lily and Reese what someone wants for their birthday, what is the answer? CANDY. What does Cooka want for his birthday? CANDY. What about Dita? CANDY.

6. Murray Sparkles. What a good sport. He will come into the bathroom almost every night and lay on the floor while the girls get their bath. Even with the splashes and water everywhere. He doesn't leave.

7. We love spicy hummus. Not plain. Spicy. So we can dip our veggie sticks.

8. Underpants. Lily and Reese understand the concept that if they go on the potty, they will get underpants. I think its more about the fact that they know underpants also come in princess and dora versions.

9. Un-loading groceries. They love to do it. They love to tear through bags and rip out strawberries, milk, cheese, whatever and yell out what it is. If you don't see them doing it, they usually follow it with, DADDY LOOK! MOMMY LOOK!

10. Pops. Lollipops. See pic above. Ridiculous.

11. Easter bunny. We are impatiently awaiting him since he brings CANDY and PRETTY DRESSES. Didn't you know?

12. Lily and Reese still refer to themselves as "my". As in "My like it." or "My like hummus". I think its the cutest.

13. Reese refers to herself is Reese-er. So does Lily.

14. Running. They absolutely love to run. Reese ran to the car from Jenkinson's boardwalk to our car on Saturday and didn't miss a step. When we got to the car she looked at me and said, "More Running?". The same thing happened at Abram's party this weekend. If the music changed, and everyone started skipping, Reese would look at me and say, "More Running?". Can't wait for the summer.

15. Reese can count to 22. I have heard up to 15ish, Rich claims its 22.

16. According to their teacher at Montessori, Reese can identify 5 chinese symbols. I don't know if I needed to know this since we are 99% sure we are switching them to a daycare at my job. Guess we will have to supplement them with some of this Montessori stuff on our own?

17. If Rick just happens to come on my IPOD they will both stop what they are doing, look at me, point to the kitchen, and say, MOMMY, RICK! Yesterday, it was funny, we parked at Barnes and Noble and Reese looked at this rather tall, dark haired man walking into the store and said, MOMMY RICK! My response was I wish.

18. Right now, they could both probably eat you out of house and home. Its crazy. I think I am going to wake up one morning and they are going to be five feet tall. I think they have cleaned out Grandma Mo's pantry for the last two weeks.

19. Blocks. Rich brought home these wooden blocks, they are serious. The girls LOVE them. All they want to do is build towers. Towers that are bigger then they are.

20. They will say "I Love You" when they go to bed. Its the cutest.

Some Uploads

2009-03-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

So I have failed miserably to get my year end wrap up posted. Long story. So instead I am uploading a few videos. Because as witty as I think I am, I will never be as cute as Lily and Reese at a on a day when we went to our good friend's birthday party.

I know I am pretty damn lucky.

Big Girl Beds and Murray Sparkles

2009-02-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

Rich has promised me a detailed girls update...but I wanted to put up a pic of the newest member of our family. Little Murray Sparkles. We went out to buy snowboots and ended up with a 2-month old kitten. Thanks to one Lily Munster that had an OBVIOUS connection. It was love at first sight, well choke-hold really.

And tonight marks the second night of sleeping in the big girl beds. "No more cribs" as they like to announce. I went out today to get them some big-girl-bed sheets and big-girl-bed blankets to make it even more special. Pics tomorrow. If I could take night-vision pics of them sleeping in their beds, I would.

play doh ice cream

2009-02-01T18:04:00.001-08:00

play date with our buddies. still waiting on rich for the commentary on the girls, since he does them much better justice than i do in their new developments. i will keep begging.

No Words

2009-01-24T18:06:00.001-08:00

Taken today. May be my new favorite pics of my lovies.

Killing time..

2009-01-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

while listening to the girls talk them to sleep. Rich and I have this routine that when we put them down to bed we wait upstairs until there is no noise coming from their room. Recently, there is a nightly recap, singing "Happy Birthday" or the ABC's, or just babble between them, then quiet. The other reason we kinda wait it out is that, when they REALLY want to, they climb out of the crib and run around their rooms. Yes, we are working on toddler beds, but until them, we are on night watch. he most part, it is a good time to catch up on emails and such while waiting for nite nite.

Oh, and some more pics from Haircut day. And I am bugging Rich to post that analysis.

Eat your heart out...

2009-01-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

3 posts in a row! Pics from one of their buddies bday party today loving cake! We told Lily that Uma Thurman called and wants her haircut back. And the first one, well what can I say. She's going to conquer the world.

First Haircuts

2009-01-10T17:21:00.000-08:00

We have been putting it off by just giving them little bang trims. Then I was looking at some other twins about their age and realized how mullet-y Lily and Reese were looking, and hello they are 2 years old without a formal haircut. So despite all the "no haircuts" we heard this morning we loaded up the girls and headed to the local Hair Cuttery. Along the way, we went through a list of friends, family, and people we know that get haircuts to ease the anxiety. We even had to like about Luca getting haircuts to make things go smoothly! Well, after waiting for about 10 minutes, it happened and went off without a hitch. Lily sat in the chair like a perfect angel, with a totally strange look on her face (kinda like, if i hate this cut you guys are so going to hear about it) and then when she was done she kept "fluffing it" and smiling at herself in the mirror. Reese, a repeat performance. She actually put her arms out to Rich when Lily was done to be PUT in the chair for her cut. The girl was even sweet enough to give them Certificates for getting their hair cuts, as you can see above and for the rest of the day Lily and Reese proceeded to talk about it - scisscors, pretty, and water (since they wetted their hair first) all day long. I think we are going to get asked around March to make some second appointments.

Fish needs a blanket

2009-01-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

I will get the year in review post up before the end of the weekend. But I had to share this story:

So "Santa" brought Lily and Reese two adorable angelfish. The girls after a few days settled on the names, Mooty (Their name for Snoopy) and Tiger (I assumed named after one of their other xmas gifts). The girls take great pride in feeding the fish. They take turns, scream about which one is suppose to go first. So last night while we are settling into the couch, I noticed one of the fish had gone to fish heaven. He or she who knows wasn't floating at the top he was settled in on the plant kind of with his head on the rock portion. So I of course being new to this parent thing go Oh man Heather look at the fish. Which prompted the reeser to come running to the fish tank. I proceed to tell her the fish was sleeping. She kept looking at the fish going fish is sleeping. But she wouldn't stop looking at it. I pulled her up on the couch which is located close to the fish tank and she kept looking at it. Finally she says Fish wake up. She said this about 10 times. Each time emoting more and ripping heather and my hearts out of our chest. Finally she says fish sleeping, fish a blanket. At that point the room was solemn. I told her the fish was sleeping. Put the girls to bed, threw out the fish and went to petco with chava to get a replacement. Tiger or Mooty was there the next morning and reese noticed he or she had indeed waked up.

RIP tiger or mooty (or dead angel fish number 1 - with more to follow).

TIGER or MOOTY Cunningham
12/24/08 - 1/5/09

Loved by many, but replaceably

Happy 2009

2009-01-05T09:11:00.001-08:00

The holidays just seem to make time go by even faster, so I decided to put up some pics to cover the last 3 weeks. Lily and Reese had a most excellent time seeing family, their buddies, Santa, and just everything. They love their new fish from Santa, Mootie and Tiger, and all of their new toys and clothes and everything else a two year old could love. They are just such a happy talkative kids, and we are realizing how much trouble two can be. Rich is much better at describing them then me, so I am going to beg and plead with him to blog tonight to give y'all his take on the ladies.

Lily and Reese: 2 going on 22.......

2008-12-17T18:15:00.001-08:00

So 12/13 Lily and Reese celebrated their birthday with their closest buddies at imaginethat museum. Lily and Reese were good host making sure to spend at least a little time with all of their guest and now can name almost all of their buddies parents when looking at their picture...

Lily....

....and Reese

Lily had to have two cupcakes....much too Peter's chagrin....

post party gift opening vip event....

seriously thank you so much to everyone for coming and making it a blast for all the kids and me.

Now this weekend also marked our first christmas tree outing as a family....Wait until Grandma Mo is watching the girls Friday....

We are READY for Christmas...

we can sing Jingle Bells......but not on command...this was almost the xmas card pic...but obviously didn't make the cut.

OK so this is a long post and many of you will be seeing Lily and Reese for the holidays (some for the first time FL I'm looking at you...Dee we are coming over this weekend!!!

But here are a few news and notes about the girls:

Reese: Reese has her fathers gifts of showmanship, dance and well talking endlessly mostly about herself (again like her father); is suprisingly the more girly girl of the two; can sing Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle, Where is thumpkin, about 4 wiggles songs - we (I) love the wiggles...I know its not hip, Yo Gabba is the post punk hipster haven, but the wiggles are like the monkees and I like me the monkees; is this about Reese or me?; Has a temper like a trucker stuck in rush hour; still 1 inch taller and 1 lb heavier; no longer ever gets confused for a boy, loves school vaccumming dress up, snoopy, mickey mouse, and all of her friends

Lily Lily is also a showwoman, she can shake what her mama gave her, loves to take her clothes off, worries her dad by dancing on things naked, loves to look at pictures, loves doing art projects, is perhaps the most popular kid in the robins room at school, puts herself in timeout and can find exactly the way to drive her parents crazy but making them laugh at the exact same time...still a lovie machine to friends and family, plays it cool with older man, she worries me....also ace soccer and athlete if you discard her awkward running type thing...

Both the girls love to call me and heather by our real names periodically (montessori is a hippie breeding ground), can say their middle names and first and middle names, smile more than not, snuggle and cuddle in a way that makes everyone love them and folks they know they are cute and know how to use it....

welcome to the terrible twos!!

you can see why we aren't posting!

2008-12-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Bye Isaac!
Driving in Acme. You try to get them BOTH to look at you...looks easy, it's not.
Reese, Deville, and Lily at the Marketfair.
Lily's new man. Isaac.
My triplets. It's all in the hair.

xo

Lack of Posts

2008-11-26T17:09:00.000-08:00

sorry for the lack of posts, we were on vacation! enjoy the pic and the video (hope it works).

about the pic, there is so much going on here, not sure where to start. John Waite, RicH, RICK, me, Doug Davidson, Jackie Zemann, and Jay Johnson.

The Gang

2008-11-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

From a couple weekends ago. We miss you D and Luca!

I know you are all waiting for these...HALLOWEEN!

2008-11-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

Trick or Treat eating a Reese's cup...no pun intended...
Ghoulie watching...
Ok, ready to go...
Milltown's Two Witches...
C'mon let us eat just ONE piece of candy...

What can I say Halloween was a blast. Milltown takes Halloween to a whole new level. Everyone gets out their lawnchairs and candy bowls and just hangs out, and hands out candy, people go CRAZY with decor, pumpkin carving, and dressing up (our one neighbor started the day out in a clown wig, then by 5 was in a tu-tu complete with some sort of home-made halo and tights?)....the doorbell starts ringing at 4 and doesn't stop until 9. Some freak dressed up like Mike Myers and walked the nightborhood alone just being scarey, he had the walk NAILED. If I wasn't so scared of him I would of asked for a photo but he may of killed me. The girls made it around the block in about an hour and then handed out candy. At first, Lily was walking right up to houses, then we turned a corner and Reese would go to the doors, while pushing Lily along. When they were handing out candy they got so into it they would yell at kids down the street (KIDS!!!) to come over so they could give them something. Reese didn't even take a nap on Halloween. Maybe it was the excitement. Maybe it was the sugar. I will say thier favorite candy (or nee-nee) is Reeses Peanut Butter cups. Lily can down one in about 2 mintues. Lily woke up the next day asking for candy for breakfast and another Halloween discovery was the lolipop. They love them. Not the safest for 2ish year olds but we let it slide for the big day.

In other news there is so much going on with them, mainly language. Lily has been chasing Reese around for 2 days yelling, NO TOUCHING REESE. This started when Reese wanted to touch the pumpkins with candles in them. It hasn't ended. Reese can count to ten. If you alternate numbers with her, she can do it too. My other favorite is Reeses word for octopus' an o-pus. Or maybe Lily's name for Snoopy (would it be Halloween without the Great Pumpkin??) which is New-teee.

I have some other fun photos from the weekend but will save them for this week.

xo

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2008-10-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some halloween-y pics. I will post later a more hour by hour analysis of the halloween activities.

First Day of School

2008-10-07T19:19:00.001-07:00

Late, but it was worth the wait, right? First day at Montessori. We are going on a class trip to the pumpkin patch this Friday. They are so into Halloween, it makes our favorite holiday even MORE fun if that is possible. We put up a teeny strand of halloween lights tonight and they were just squeeling HALLOWEEN and running around like crazy. They are just going to have the time of thier little 22 month lives this year trick-or-treating and giving out candy, I can feel it.

Fair is Fair - A page for Lily

2008-10-02T18:05:00.001-07:00

Happy October!

Reese and Minnie

2008-09-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Reese would not take this hat off at Target the other night. She cracks me up.

As of yesterday we have started repeating "Who's That?" and "What's this?"....right now it is super cute, especially when watching the intro to Sesame Street.

So I bought them some flash cards with letters and pictures on them, thought it would be fun until Reese started quizzing me by holding up a card and asking "This?" and I found myself answering. Then I am telling Rich about it and come to find out, she does the same thing to him. Must be making sure we are smart enough to hang with her or something. Little turd.

New School

2008-09-17T17:32:00.001-07:00

Rich took pics of the girls their first day of school and despite my begging, he hasn't downloaded them yet. We can tell they love their new school. They each have their own lunchboxes (one is farm animals, the other - butterflies), which they carry from the house to the car, drive to school holding them like little old ladies on the bus with their pocketbooks, and into the school which is 19 steps up. After the first day, Reese couldn't stop saying her new word, LUNCH. So we suspected they loved it and it was confirmed today when Rich spoke to the head teacher, and said, "they love their new school" and her response was "its obvious". So we aren't crazy.

They go to Montessori as you know and it seems to be the perfect learning environment for them, right down to Tweety, the classroom bird. They go Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 9-330. I was telling some people at work about their new day, and most of them said, wow, that's a long day for them. My only response was, more like 1/2 a day for them!!! The best thing is that it has put them on a schedule once again, and in bed by 730 LATEST which is great. And they are up at about 720, which again is great.

One thing I have noticed lately is how much they love to color. They enjoy yelling out what they want you to draw, which can range from watermelons, bananas, and apples (bapples), to hearts, stars, rainbows, and elmos. Out of sheer desperation, the other night I was forced to bring out the fingerpaints. Lily was on one of her "sticky" kicks (the girl loves putting stickers on her shirt) and I had NONE. So I busted out the fingerpaints, which they do at school all the time. Messy, but I have to say, the quietest 20 minutes of my whole night. They were so focused, it was kinda scary. I mean, how do you keep their attention for a whopping 20 minutes with ANYTHING even Sid the Science Kid wears thin after 15.

Pics to follow.

September

2008-09-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

Bandana Lily.
The best family pic we could get so far. Why Rich had to wear his bandana I am not sure.
Apple picking Reese.
Reese apple.
Feeding animals with D.

Rich and I have come to the conclusion the best thing to do on the weekends is find festivals, street fairs, etc and get out of the house. A friend of ours offered this advice months ago, and now we are all over it. The kids have more fun, you have less clean-up, and everyone is happier. Yesterday we were able to go to the Cranford Music Festival before the rain hit and ran into our friends Peter, Allie, and Erin. They had lots of bouncy kid things (which the girls are still not into...I am sure if they had a friend with them that would break the ice, they would be all over these kiddie things), and of course a petting zoo. We have been connoisseurs of petting zoos. They seem to be at every kid event we go to. The girls love it too. So of course, they missed their nap, got cranky, we end up carrying them, and we have to leave but we went to Princeton Marketfair (their favorite mall) to wander the rest of the afternoon. Well really to tear up Pottery Barn kids. Rich wanted to buy Reese the hot dog Halloween costume, but I talked him out of it.

Today was their buddy Deville's 2nd birthday. Again, they had a great time. It is so fun to watch them play with other kids and have a fun day. Lily didn't rank the hay ride on her top 3 favorite things of the day, but I think playing with D on the slide was #1.

Hoboken

2008-08-31T17:35:00.000-07:00

Jammin' with the dolphin and getting wet.
Duckie.
Baby see-saws.
Do you know when the last time I did this was?? Nice highlights.
Looking up at Reese.

Total turnaround from yesterday. Seriously, one of the most fun days we have had all summer, next to Sesame Place or our 4+ hour days at the pool. Hoboken is so kid friendly. The playground we went to not only was asphalt coated to prevent skinned knees, but had 3 levels of playgrounds depending on age AND a water part. Ice cream. Dogs EVERYWHERE.

Lily found money. And a wad of it. Well, found a wallet while wandering around Frank Sinatra Park. So I see her playing with something, a wallet, she found on a bench. I hesitated picking it up, because what if the owner thought I was stealing it? Well, my kid found it so I can't get in trouble. I open it and there was like $500+ in cash in it, I swear, I haven't seen that much $$ in a wallet in years. Ha. So I think for a minute, THANK GOD, then I realize I could not live with myself if I cleaned this poor guy out. So I look for a drivers license. No dice. But I do find a gym membership card. I realize this is the guy walking the bulldog that we had just passed walking down the pier. I remember looking at him, pretty buff "gym dude" in his late 40's? walking a bulldog, funny how owners and their dogs look alike. It's him. So I scoop up Lily and walk towards the water sprays because I think I see him, but its kinda far. I walk up to him, Lily on my hip and ask him if he lost his wallet. Hi doggie. He feels his pockets, uh, oh my god, yes. I hand him the wallet. I say, I didn't take anything, I was just looking for your license. He is speechless. I kinda was hoping for a reward, but that's ok. I believe in karma. We walk away. Oh, and Rich is with Reese, they went someplace else in the park. So I tell him the story. He wants to punch me.
Let this poor guy have a little faith in humanity and remember that there is at least one decent person out there.
Maybe I should start playing the lottery? Just kidding.

More Waves!

2008-08-30T18:11:00.001-07:00

Best $1.75 we ever spent. Lemon ice.
Lily vs. The Ocean
The one minute Reese wasn't crying today. Just kidding.
Lily planning her attack on the waves.
Awww.....soaked, but how adorable.

We have an action packed weekend planned so I didn't want to delay in posting, or let's be honest, it wouldn't happen.
So today we went to Point Pleasent. Such a great day, but of course, not a great day for at least 1 of the 2 babes. You know, I read a decent amount of mom blogs, and of course you want to write about the fun, happy, funny, and sometimes embarrassing stuff. I am going to give it to you straight. Today was probably one of the WORST days for us, Reese was just downright miserable from the time we left until we got home. And she is getting over some wierd virus, and spiked a 103+ temp this week, and she is teething, but she was off the charts. Usually, if the woobs get bored at home, we can expect the whiney, boo-hoo-i'm-bored-let's-go-out-stuff, we go someplace, even Target, and all is well. No crying. No outbursts. Not today. Reese not only hated the ocean, she just shook her head no and ran back to the boardwalk, but also had a full-blown meltdown smack in the middle of the boardwalk with me. Lily on the other hand was too busy yelling MORE WAVES and running into the ocean. I am not saying Reese was having a miserable time the whole day, but good god, she was alot of work. Wanting to be carried, put down, carried, put down. And I know it is teeth related too since the happiest she was was eating a Lemon ice-y. Lily took the opportunity to be the best kid in the world, dragging her dad at least knee deep into the surf (we had no towels or bathing suits for that matter) and having a blast.
So we come home, do quick baths, and get the Elmo ready, and Reese is just a snuggly happy kid that even walked over to the stairs at 730 for nite-nite. Thank god we are back on that schedule too. Well, that was after a good hour of screaming bloody murder home. Please please let tomorrow be a happy day. We have another day of fun planned...you will just have to wait for the pics...

And in other more exciting news, we have come to the conclusion that Reese can climb out of her crib. I walked in the other night to check on them (Reese had been up crying), it was about 330am, and I open the cracked-door only to have Reese standing in front of me, saying, Hi Mommy. Uhhhhh.....of course at that hour I was delierious, also since she had us up from 1130pm until then. I am not sure how she did it either because she didn't FALL out, she must of climbed out, like a catburgler, and lowered herself to the ground and then started playing with her toys. We are hoping it was a FREAK thing, because I am not sure what we would do if she did it again. And I am soooo not ready for toddler beds, it would be chaos. So for now, we are keeping the crib (I am not ready for my baby to be in a bed yet!! Yikes!!), and hoping it never happens again.

August

2008-08-20T18:55:00.001-07:00

We have been busy! Lots of fun weekends, at this point we try to keep the ladies busy or else they just don't get tired! These pics are from Megan's birthday party about 2 weeks ago. The ladies are talking ALOT. Sometimes entire sentences - Look, its a bee! or Lily is ohhhhkeeee. My favorite is when Lily sees a heart and says "heart". I end up drawing 10 a night on our driveway with chalk. We did make it down to Point Pleasant for a couple hours but I am hoping to make it down again for some more beach time and a visit to Pop. They just love to run on the beach, not so hot on the rides, but LOVE skeeball still and of course Kohr's ice cream.

In other news, next week will be their last week at Kindercare and as of September 3rd, will be starting Montessori. This will be such a great time for them, they will be in school from 9-4 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Their little minds are so inquisitive, it is going to be a great experience for them, and also keep them WAY busy during the day.

Go Go Go

2008-07-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

The shirtdress making a comeback Summer 08.
One of my favorite pics of Lily. Pinup dress and a look to melt hearts.
Yup, a Cunningham.

New development - Now Reese will take your finger and say "go" and want you to walk with her usually "side" i.e. outside. This is cute but when it is raining and yucky (another new favorite word), not easily persuaded.

Sesame Place and other tidbits

2008-07-16T20:53:00.001-07:00

So the family took a day off to wander our way to pennsy, land of lost souls and sesame place. There are no pictures. It is not possible to take pictures of two 1 1/2 year olds in the land of elmo and bert. Believe me.

So as you would suspect any place with six pools is going to rank very high with the two eager, emerging swimmers. They love the water and have little fear of walking chin or mouth high into the water. Reese enjoys being doused or sprayed with water a little more than lily. Lily prefers to splash or to go into a frog like laying down in the water to simulate swimming. They both do it but Lily a little more. Both of them loved the lazy river which again turned into a dousing festival for reese and I as we had to hit all of the sprays and water dumping towers.

They saw the parade and liked it. Mostly in awe of the big muppets and the poor performace by the street dancers except for this one guy who embarassed us all by his enthusiasm for the heart of rock and roll by huey lewis.

But the highlight came at the end of the day when we found big bird's nest which is a giant padded cirlce with large padded blocks. We hung there for a good 30 minutes or more as Lily and Reese ran in circles and dropped to the floor - they usually do this as part of their dance numbers a l a james brown. Reese threw some shoulders and took out a few running kids. No tears just smiles. They really love interacting with other kids, chasing them and staring...oh the staring.

In other news
the girls are quickly becoming two of the most popular people in Milltown. Everywhere we go people point them out and tell us about seeing them in the window waving to everyone, or in the backyard playing, or on our weekly (biweekly, tri-weekly) trips to the local bakery - where Lily and Reese turn on the charm to get free cookies and pick out dinner options for their two tired parents.

Today Reese started saying her name. For a while she would say her name was Lily. It was funny but you kind of want her to be able to say her own name. Because she can really kick out the "LILY". We were in Target the other day and everyone knew Lily's name because Reese was running around the store yelling it in her super voice. There are few places better to be than a target at 8 am on a sunday morning. No one in sight and tons of things to play with.

The girls have perfected saying "not nice" it was cute when they said it to each other to resolve sharing disputes but now chava has gotten a few not nices and even mom and dad have been on the receiving end during some discipline chats. How do you respond to a little kid who is telling you you are not nice for telling her no. Tough one.

A few more treats - the girls are still getting more and more girly. They prefer to wear dresses when going out especially to parties. I know people will say how do you know they want to wear dresses. Well when kids go through your laundry basket to find their watermelon (so in this season...where are you tommy h?) or the infamous bubble dress (this dress can trigger lily and reese to act like those crazy brides at the 99 dolllar sale at david's bridal).

They both enjoy jumping off of things like the ottomans on to the floor or the couch or climbing onto dad's chair.

My proudest moments are when we walk either all four of us or at least three of us holding hands. I just feel proud of them as little people and the love that we all share.

Ahhh...yes the lovies and the kisses. When Aunt Linda and Uncle Robert came it was the beggining of the kiss goodbye and kisses in general. Now. Off the hook. These little ones know exaclty how to charm the pants of folks with their kisses and loveys (apparently this is the proper spelling according to the parenting handbook, cookie). Just ask POP. Who was showered with kisses on the boardwalk for sponsoring mom and dad's collective effort to win two stuffed frogs on the frog bog. They turned it on and gave Pop a few kisses for hanging out with us as we enjoyed pt. pleasant together.

We get goodnight kisses everynight now and kisses good bye and hello sometimes when we come home. Very few things can change the course of the day than a good night kiss from these two beautiful little ones.

Its still nice to know I get a better response the Mo-Mo (elmo as the girls call him).

Last note: Today was my last day of chemo. I will be unhooked friday and then will be going for some restaging tests (PET scan, CT scan, bloodwork) next week. I will be going back to Pittsburgh in September to have them harvest white cells so they can make me a vaccine from my white cells and the cancerous cells removed back in March. Its another trial study. They say I am an optimal candidate which means that I should help them prove it works. So that the long and short of it.

lots of love to family and friends. We would love to see more of you and appreciate your patience with me (maybe us, but for the sake of everyone I will say me) over the last few months. We are so thankful to have such good friends and loving families that want to be part of our lives.

the dadoode (another gift from the girls)

...summer so far...

2008-07-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

summer backyard fun
love the snack shack at the milltown pool
reese as her little girl self
art lily
reese prefers the chocolate eclair good humors

Happy 5th!

2008-07-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

Park baby slide. Lily.
Lily legs on the swing.
Cutey-pie Reese.
Breakin' the law.
Point Pleasant Beach.

I am not sure how to summarize how much fun the ladies have been. I am going to compile a list of 20 (probably more) new things the girls can do - ahem -

1. Lily can say her own name and point to herself.

2. Learned the word "Mine"

3. Love to give kisses

4. Have realized going in the wagon usually means going to Shanahan's which means "cookies". Now we call it the cookie wagon. This has backfired on us when Shanahan's is closed.

5. Pool Pool Pool. This needs to be a whole separate post.

6. Will tell Chava "No" when he tries to steal their snacks.

7. Will call things "not nice" when they don't like them - i.e. the scary rides for big kids on the boardwalk

8. LOVE Ice Cream

9. Picked out dresses to go to the Milltown 4th of July Celebration despite all their new outfits from Old Navy.

10. Tried funnel cake for the first time which cost $5 in Milltown! I thought I was at Jenkinsons.

11. Love their new (well not so new) playmate Deville. We saw him Thursday and the whole way home heard about "D".

12. Lily set a pie on fire. That's right. Our friends bought a new house and I wasn't even thinking. So Lily went over to the stove and I turned around and the pie, that was sitting on the burner was an inferno. Luckily, it went out quickly and is so NOT FUNNY, but Lily, just turned around and smiled as I bolted to the stove. The pie was rhubarb.

13. Love bubbles. Actually the best part about bubbles is hearing them say it and then take their little bubble containers blow through the wand with their lips actually touching the wand so when they talk, bubbles come out. Not kidding.

14. Are getting pee-pee and pooh-pooh. Reese will tell you "pooh-pooh" right before she goes. Getting on the potty training track for sure. Elmo potty is waiting. What will we do with all that extra money when we don't have to buy diapers?? Ha!

15. Could live at the pool if allowed. You cannot drive past the pool after school or else someone may jump out of the car seat. This has happened to me very innocently. I wanted to see if it was busy at 4 in the afternoon. Bad idea.

16. Pick their noses. Thanks dad.

17. Dance. Reese threw down the craziest moves I have ever seen the other morning. And at the end of her routine actually threw herself on the ground like a finale, looked up at Rich and me, and smiled.

18. Itsy Bitsy Spider. They will try to sing along and do the arm movements.

19. Sprinkles. Can't live without them. One day, we went to Shanahan's and they gave us some free cookies. You know, the ones that are 1/2 dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, and 1/2 not. Lily, after eating the chocolate dipped side, handed me the cookie and said "More". So I gave her the same cookie back. She threw it out of the wagon. Needless to say, we only buy 100% sprinkled cookies.

20. Make-up. I started putting lip balm on them when they were little little for sunscreen. Now this has expanded into "lipstick" (lip balm) and "pow-pow" (powder). Reese will pat her cheeks when you break a compact out for it. And don't even try to get away with not sharing lotion. They will come up to you and put their arms out for a sample. Please, only organics and preferably coconut scented.

Enjoy the pics!

Happy 4th!!

You miss us!

2008-07-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Lets just say I hate fireworks so I can promise you an update WITH PICTURES tomorrow. We go to the pool. Thats all we do.
Happy 4th.
xo

2008-06-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

who doesn't love jamba juice on a sunday afternoon?
backyard fun.
early morning under the covers.
ok add about 15 years to this idea and it spells trouble.
lovies.

An oldie, but a goodie.

2008-06-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

last summer, no hair no teeth. adorable.

sorry for the delay in posts...i just haven't had a chance to upload pictures, and i know, its all about the pictures! looks like reese is on round 2 with pinkeye, and probably another ear infection, so it has been a little cranky around here all week. lily on the other hand has looked like the best kid in the world, patient around reese, and sometimes trying to make her feel better by giving her water cups and bottles. kinda cute.
we did invest in the elmo potty. lily picked it out, and everyone knew she would gravitate right to the elmo version. they actually sit on it, no action, just sitting which is cool. reese will tell you poo-poo sometimes when she goes, which again, is so cute, even if it is poop. so maybe we can get the potty training going by the end of the summer. i just put the potty out saying, no pressure, but here it is. i will say i will NOT take pictures of thier first poops with them standing near the potty like that crazy woman from john&kate plus eight. that is kinda creepy. someone actually asked me if i was going to do that, maybe it was rich...but someone did ask.

Sunny Days

2008-06-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

That about sums up our weekend.
Lily & Me doing our best Glamour Shot.

Metuchen Street Fair, June 1st.

Talk, Talk, Talk

2008-05-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hey waiter, where is my food??? (and why does my sister refuse to wear pants at the table?)

Ok thats better. Wait, is that a dunkin donuts bag attached to my hand? How did that get there?
Coconut ice pops. Teething heaven. No teaching Reese. She was a pro off the bat.
Lily - not so much with the sweets. No one believes us. Chava doesn't mind. Oh yeah, Chava is back.
Again, notice the chocolate glazed munchkin on the table. Lily would rather eat cheese sandwiches.

Talking up a storm. It is really the cutest thing when Lily tells you "more" or Reese calls the kids walking down the street "baby" - she calls all kids "baby". Reese has perfected her "Chava" especially the "va" part. They are so fun just trying to say almost everything you say from "firetruck" to "ladybug" to cookie. Oh yeah, Lily loves to say that one. So cute. Just because she loves to feed Chava the cookies. Not herself.

Just can't get enough....

2008-05-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Party at the kiddie table. Look at poor Deville listening to all the girl talk talk talk.
Lily or Reese? You decide.
Sitting in the big girl chair. Little person!
NICU reunion.

Playing house with Deville. Deville was such a hot number the ladies were jumping out of the back windows and storming the front door!

Some pics from the weekend. No bumps or bruises but one case of pinkeye (Reese), one yeast infection (Lily), and 3 infected ears (one for Lily, two for Reese). No worries, everyone is fine and medicated. They actually had no outward symptoms for the ear infections. We were taking Lily in for her "diaper rash" that wouldn't go away and *bingo* the MD finds an ear infection, in which we immediately decided we better bring Reese in too.

We had the best time this weekend anyway. Running around outside with Deville and Jonah on Saturday (and eating at the little kids table which was amazing! Definately making an IKEA trip this weekend for a kiddie table in order to retire the high-chairs - EEK - they are growing up!). And Sunday we managed to get to the NICU party which was fun. Got to eat mac&cheese, cookies, and ice cream and chase kids around. FUN!!

In other growing up news, Rich and I received the letter we had been dreading. The one that lets us know that the girls are graduating from "Infant B" (the room they started in at daycare last September) to "Toddler A" (for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year olds). This soooo bittersweet. We simply adore their teachers and they rule their classroom - I guess it is time to move on to a more challenging environment. And anyway, they start Montessori in September. But it is also the end of an era for them and us. Their first day care experience, where we didn't know how it would work - for them, for us, or how we would pay for it - and now here they are moving along. Luckily there are some other kids also "graduating" to the next room, so there will be some familiar faces. And not to sound too modest about how great our kids are, but Miss Jen and Miss Kristen (their teachers in Infant B) are sooo bummed they are transitioning. In fact, Miss Kristen said she didn't even want to talk about it Friday when she handed Rich the letter. How sweet!! We will miss them much.

Baths!

2008-05-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Rockstar
I am a girl, see!
Funtimes in the bathtub.
Giggles.
Lily in Mohawk. Its so NOT me.

I tried to upload Melissa's mothers day pics but they were posting teeny-tiny so I have posted some bath pictures from about a month ago....

The girls have been freaking both Rich and I out by responding to questions with head-nods, although most of the time its a no. And their new words of the week include "apple" and "owl" - and I do hear some "woofs" when dogs walk by the house, so cute. One other new thing we have become obsessed with is throwing out garbage. Almost everything can potentially be garbage. I just wonder when they can start washing dishes. That would be helpful.

We are hoping for a sunny weekend ~ we have a bbq dinner with some friends Saturday and then the NICU reunion Sunday which will hopefully translate into loads of fun and exhaustion for the babes. The NICU reunion will be interesting, all of the graduates from the St. Peter's NICU are invited to this Rutgers gym, looks like it is country themed, as in cowboys and cowgirls, so the girls may have to bust out their pink boots, which are a fashion statement in themselves.

We are on night one (of three) of da-da being away. He is flying out Chicago tonight for a work conference so me and the girls started the party off right tonight. Tonights activities included peanut butter sandwiches, pizza, and cake (well the last two are my dinner which are leftovers from mother's day), and night bottles on the porch watching for dogs. So far so good.

Athens

2008-05-04T18:05:00.001-07:00

Reese and Country Cat #1
Birthday Boy Isaac!!
Party
Reese watching the dog on the porch. She was crazy for this dog.
Reese with her party face on.

We had a rockstar weekend. I wanted to get some pics up since I knew the little Lily & Reese blogworlders would want to know how their first roadtrip went. AWESOME. They got to be country girls for the day and hang out with their new bud, Isaac who is such a doll (see picture). I have to say, we timed it perfectly, had everything ready to go for when they were ready to take thier AM nap, that included 4 bags: clothes bag, food bag, diaper bag, toy bag. Count 'em. Four bags! They slept amazingly until 12 noon and only had to be awake for about 1/2 hour which we just gave them thier snack traps and they were content. We walked into the house, and hello, there were about 10 kids so they were just in heaven and all smiles. Oh and a dog and a cat or three, so that was just even better. Reese went on a super-nature walk that I am hoping Rich will blog about at some point, and Lily, of course played balloon-volleyball with the big kids. We stayed until bedtime, put on the jammies, packed the ladies in the car, and off we went. Ahh. Misson accomplished.

So today we of course had to make up double time all the things we space over two days, which was ok, the girls are use to action packed weekends. One thing the ladies are amazed by these days, Ants. I will try to post a video.

My Second Post - Dada returns

2008-05-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

So Heather has been a very devoted blogger and I - - - well have saved my few writings for emails and the one blog post early on.

This blog has featured videos, tons of pictures and lots of my wife's wit and more rick springfield references than I am comfortable with - I will try to answer the question or questions I get asked most often.

What are the girls like?

In general, I am amazed everyday by these little wonders. While I often joke that they are right in between monkey phase and personhood.

Eating:

They are amazing with their spoon skills when eating. It probably is one of the most exciting things to watch. They look so grown up when eating their cereal with fruit, yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, and cottage cheese with the spoon in hand. They continue to love new foods. But other than cookies, Lily still doesn't like sweet things. They hate milk but recently discovered chocolate soy milk. They both enjoy stealing food off of each others trays. Reese likes to give Lily the food she doesn't like or want to eat and applauds herself for being such a good "sharer."

Motor Skills:

They don't love books as much as they used to instead they like putting objects into things, putting lids on stuff. They absolutely love climbing. Lily has even climbed up the front of the high chair - can't wait for the milltown town wide garage sale. They love to draw - especially on the magnetic egg pads Grandma C bought them. Every so often it looks like something. I can't wait to hang up their art work in the office and on the fridge. Oh big news hidden in this blog. We got into the Montessori school in East Brunswick. The girls will start in September and I will be looking forward to my first parent association.

Things we say:

dada, mama, a version of grandma that sounds like gamama, hot, pop, bus, cat, dug(dog), dat(that). Things we try to say: circle, star, up.

Right now is tough as the girls can really understand most things but they struggle to verbalize what they want. So we have seen an increase in tantrums as they figure out other ways to communicate. But their understanding makes you feel closer to them - like all those things that you said were being absorbed and now they know things. I am amazed by how much they know.

Most important

Both Lily and Reese give big open mouth wet sloppy kisses. And they even kiss other people than Mom and Dad. While nothing will make me feel more special than coming home from work with them waiting at the back screen door - smiles ear to ear, screaming, and then giving me a big hug and a kiss - I am glad to share their love with others.

Dancers

They love to dance. Spinning especially but Lily has taken to spastic slapping and violent arm swinging. Reese is more subtle. She prefers to rock her head, and bob. At times she reminds me of myself when I was at hardcore shows.

A little about Lily

Neither of the girls are the dominant twin. At times Lily can be the bossy one. She is not as good at sharing and often takes things from her sister. But she is sooo adorable and sweet. She is so excitable. We call her sissy pants. Because she runs like Robin Williams in the birdcage. Her legs and hips twist as she high steps. When she smile she uses her whole face to smile.

A little about Reese

Reese is still more of the snuggler. She is scared to death of leaves blowing in the wind. Her smile is warm and just ropes you in. She also is a little more of a smart ass than her sister. She enjoys doing the exact opposite of what you say when correcting her.

A list of things we like to do

- Stare at older kids.

- Play with older kids especially boys.

-pocketbooks, putting on lipstick, lotion, brushing our hair and just about anything that makes you never forget that they are women.

- bugs - lily likes when ants crawl on her and the sight of an ant or spider could make you 15 minutes late for day care

- waving hello to everyone and blowing them kisses when we leave

- seeing dogs

- petting cats

- jelly man kelly, and most of the sesame street silly song

- 80s music - mom's influence

- shoes - we love shoes.

- playing on the porch

- buses, motorcylces, trucks, and garbage trucks

all right so I am setting records for longest blog, so I will leave you with a few last words.

Those little woobies are two of the greatest gifts I have ever been given. Like any other kids they are not perfect, but in my eyes they are as close as they can be. As they grow and change - they change me. I am a better person because of my kids. I have more love in my heart than I ever could have imagined.

----

Oh, and Heather and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary a few weeks back. I can't imagine that two people were ever meant for each other more than us. I know that people always look at us and wonder how we deal with everything that we have experienced. It is real simple - we have each other (and now these two wonderful daughters). I am so blessed and really really happy and loved.

ok ok 5 more...

2008-04-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

reese or lily....no cheating!
running! geez do we cut our grass? yes! we feed her. she just has that metabolism everyone wants.
what 1/2 of my day looks like...
ok ok reese up lily down.
more reese.

Mix of 3 Weekends!

2008-04-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

How you should REALLY play skeeball.
Get in there.
More backyard.
Pig noses.

Reese being a punk rocker in the backyard with her Bouncing Souls onesie.

We have another weekend of adventure including our first Cunningham roadtrip to Athens, NY Saturday for Isaac's birthday. We both forgot the camera this past weekend at Ag Field Day, but we had plenty of farm pics from the weekend before. They love farm animals, what can I say. Oh and then we took them to one of those kiddie indoors places yesterday, Urban Playground?, something like that. They had so much fun again. Lots of running, throwing balls, and this big climby thing that they are going to be rockin' in about a month. They were a little scared of it this time, but I am sure they will lose that by May.

Words....well there has been alot going on in this arena. Lily and Reese can offically say NANA for banana, we are working on grandma (more like gr-ma) and pop (yeah, they have that down). They are getting really good at head nods with a meaning. Like, Reese are you hungry? Yes-nod, and running into the kitchen. Its so fun.

More adventure pics to come. Promise. How do I just freeze them at this age and keep them here. They have done so much in 2 weeks I feel like they are going to be driving soon.

See we eat junk food sometimes...

2008-04-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

More farm time in the frog hat.
Lily is truely my daughter. No french fries, no ice cream, no candy. You will see more.
Reese fry. That is her reaction to ketsup.
Orange slices are a totally different ballgame.
Like mother like daughter.

Nice Days in the Backyard

2008-04-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Dancin' in the backyard.
Lily
Farm with friends.
Cowgirl Lily.
Talk to the hand.

We are so busy and having so much fun with the girls. I am just going to post pics, I think they say it all vs. my boring blog.

Road Trip!

2008-04-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

LOVE outside.
Lily looking funny.
3rd anniversary picture at brunch.
We found the Milltown playground, awesome!
Leaves at the playground.

Well not but in 2 weekends we have decided to take the girls on a serious roadtrip to Athens, New York for Isaac Parde's first birthday party. It is probably about a 2+ hour drive and we are strategically plotting how to drive and coordinate drive time with thier naps. We are super excited to see Kurt, Claire, and Isaac so it is soooo going to be worth the trip regardless of any kicking and screaming. Plus if the ladies are anything like thier parents, they are going to want to be on the move this summer and not stuck in Milltown! Thus far, we get the feeling that they are movers and shakers. We have some action packed weekends scheduled for the next 3 weekends so that is great for them. Some trips include the Metuchen Street Fair (complete with a petting zoo), the Camden Aquarium, the St. Peter's NICU reunion (that is going to be the jam for sure, its 4 hours in a gym with other NICU graduates), and maybe even some other suprizes. Now that Rich is feeling better we are making up for lost time in a way to spend some time out and about with the girls. Its so much fun since they are so much fun. Tonight we went to a birthday party at New Labor for Nicole, she turned 2. Needless to say the girls were exposed to thier first New Labor Fiesta (although we didn't stay late enough for the pinata) but they were able to get thier first taste of home-made mango jello and LOVED it. I had to hide it for them to stop eating it (I was fearing sugar overload at 630pm and trying to get them to bed).

We passed on the cake, I know, but us Cunninghams have issues with too much sugar.

Oh so some of the pics are from the Milltown playground where we went Tuesday. It is so awesome for them. There is part of the playground for 1-2 year olds. Then there is the other part with a swinging bridge and all of that. You know where the ladies went. Big kid playground. Reese at one point ran up to four girls, probably about 5-7 years old, yelling in her happy voice offering them a rock. I tried to explain to her it was nice sharing, but big kids don't want to play with rocks. Not sure if she understand. Where was Lily? Oh she was chasing a set of twin boys (probably around 8 years old ) around the playground and flashing her baby blues at them. Not kidding. They were a little freaked out by her. One of the mom's turned to me and said, Wow, for 16-months they sure aren't shy are they? Ha.

In other news, what are the ladies up to. New words....cracker (kinda), la-la (for Ella), oh - they can point to thier butts if you ask them "Reese/Lily where is your butt?" (thanks dad), and baa-boo and sometimes boo-boo for dad's boo boo. They will lift up Rich's shirt to examine it too. Kinda funny.

the camera never lies...

2008-04-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

Park shots from the weekend. Reese without arms in the swing.
Lily being normal in the swing.
Ariel view of the trouble.
Nope, the camera doesn't lie.

Ok we will hold off on the Rick stories and go back to Lily & Reese, who had thier 16 month doctors appointment today. I think the screaming just stopped. They were so good for most of thier other appointments but I think kids just have this innate sense that doctors = bad. Kinda like animals going to the vet. The smell, the sound of screaming from the back. Needless to say, lots of screaming for the Cunninghams and that was even BEFORE the shots. Even the nurse and doctor were like, OK, is it that bad?? I won't bore you with thier stats other then weight...I was even waaaay off on where they were and I pride myself on being able to guess people's weights for a living (ok, maybe I am just good at adults?). Lily is now 20 pounds 10 ounces and Reese is 21 pounds 4 ounces. Woohoo. The doctor was pretty impressed with where they are skillwise....now they spin in circles (kinda like dancing), can say almost 10 words!, like to play with puzzles, put shapes in the right cut-outs, color (well, then eat the crayons), and play dress up (you saw the bunny shoes).

We went to the park in Highland Park this weekend that has a little zoolike thingy. There are goats, chickens, foxes, ostriches, llamas, that you can feed. Well the ladies just went nuts. Yelling and screaming at the animals starting off with the poor coyote. Our accountant also lives on a farm and does pony rides and has invited us this summer to come by so the girls can see the horses. I don't know what they are going to do. It is going to be like me meeting Rick (sorry, I couldn't resist the Rick reference).

Enjoy the pics!!

For those of you that thought I was kidding...

2008-03-30T17:36:00.001-07:00

Rich Update

2008-03-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Bruiser. We knew Reese would be the first one with a black eye.
Looking at the camera!
Again! Happy Easter. I know, lots of hair. Oh and Lily's shirt says "Chicks Rule".
As Britney said, "I'm not that innocent....".
Do Reese's faces capture the moment or what?? Skeeball!!

Ok, so I know the "invite only" think is kinda annoying and stinks but there were some not-so- cool people logging on to the blog and frankly it just pissed me off since there is all this rich-health stuff going on, ect. and it's really not for the world to see. So not that its VIP but at least I know who I invited. :) Bear with me.

I am reposting something Rich had on myspace for those of you that aren't on it or didn't see it. He barely writes on here so I thought you would enjoy his humor.

So I am losing my mind being in a hospital waiting to be discharged. So I return the land of myspace.That's right after a 12 hour surgery where they removed like boatloads of my intestines and poured hot molten chemo into my stomach I will be getting discharged tomorrow. The surgery was last Tuesday. Crazy. I should set foot in the land of hairspray on Friday.Two quick stories from the UPMC shadyside hosptial:

1.On my third day of being awake.the nurse comes in and says I heard you are really sarcastic, funny and nice and not to take it personal.It was written in the daily communication between the nurses just likethat.

2.So my surgeon left town right after my surgery, so I have been followedby his group.So last night I "organize" my nurse to let me off thefloor and to go down and see the gift shop for some reading materials.Well who do I see while down there my surgeon.His mouth hit the the floor. He was like what are you doing down here.an hour later he was up in my room trying to find out what was going on.Also, Heather has some new pics of the girls up....check them out those little ladies and Heather are why I do this crap.Rich

Video #2 Oh My!

2008-03-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

I want to eat them both.

Happy Easter!

Video?

2008-03-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

Helping.

2008-03-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

So today when I was packing the diaper bag, the ladies were running around since they had their jackets and shoes on ("jacket" has become as exciting to Lily & Reese as "ball" is to puppers). Just for fun I asked Reese to hand me a diaper from the bin (we have these ottomans that store diapers, and other stuff).....and she did. I have this thing, where if I think something just happened coincidentally, I ask again...this happens with words I think I hear them say, ect. So I ask Reese again, can you bring me a diaper, and again, she brings me another diaper. How exciting, my helpers!

Big Bang #2. Well, Lily had her major headcrack 2 days before her mermaid party (hmmm...so that means it happened on her birthday). Reese, of course, had to fall face-first from merely walking outside TODAY. So the Easter egg hunt is Sunday and Reese looks like she ran into a brick wall. She fell on the concrete from JUST WALKING. For many of you that have seen or watch the ladies lately, this is so ironic. Reese (well Lily too) climb on everything and fall off of most things. Couches, chairs, ottomans, ANYTHING. No injuries (knock on wood). In fact, on more than one occasion I have witnessed Reese take headers, falls, tumbles, somersaults, and jumps off of bigger and scarier things. No injuries. Today, walking...not running...and kaboom. Goose-egg, cheek & chin ouchies. As I said, we were on our way to the mall. So now she is out, banged up, and in public which always makes for fun conversation. Things like, "Well it looks like she is having a rough day!" or "Awwww....poor baby (does this mean... Jesus, nice parent?)". Rich and I thought we would take them for some Easter bunny pics today but then realized we would be the only ones thinking we were even being a little funny. And besides, Reese and Lily were so NOT into the Easter Bunny at the Bridgewater Commons. Reese ran up to the one at Menlo yelling "HI HI HI" and waving like Miss America. That was until EB started to make a move to her and Reese was done with him. As much as Rich and I were thinking of doing the EB pics, the thought of 2 screaming kiddies, one with a giant red/purple lump on her head, did not sound like fun to us. Sorry EB. Next year.

In parental news, I am done with the old not-so fun job as of today. Nice feeling. Rich leaves for Pittsburgh Monday. I think we are both just at the point where we are saying "bring it on". As Rich was saying, we have been talking about it since November, in some sick ways its like planning a wedding. All this talk talk talk and then holy crap its here. The weirdest part is that he is looking so fine and doing things and having fun and then boom Tuesday is the big day. We are just having fun this weekend. Easter egg hunts, QT, and lots of smiles.

And oh yeah, today marks 2 weeks until me and RS hang out. Hee hee. Think I am crazy now? Just wait until you hear what I have planned for November....

No Videos but New Pics!

2008-03-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

I told you about the pocketbooks.
Who doesn't love a good boa?
Modified peek-a-boo from America's Next Top Mermaid.
Let us out PLEASE!!
Lily hates pants. But who would want to wear pants with these leggs?

I tried and tried with the videos but no luck. A very cute video with head nodding sort of to yes. Next time I promise. In other news, I quit the new job today to go back to the old one. Long story, kinda boring, but I LOVED my old job, was able to pick the babes from daycare and spend dinner with them, ect. New job was not letting me do that. Not worth it. So back to old job. Funny how these things, even if they are not the way you wanted them to work out, seem to work out. My last day at the new job is Friday, and my old boss offered me starting with a couple days after the week of Rich's surgery if I wanted, or I could just start the week of March 31st. Perfect. Now I can be off next week, deal with all of that, and not be rushing home to spend time with the girls. Rich's surgery is next Tuesday, and will be open (ie- not laproscopic, which would have been shorter recovery time, ect) just because the surgeon wants to make sure he is seeing everything the best he can, which cannot be done as well with a lap. So that means he will be in Pittsburgh probably 2 solid weeks, 10 days in the hospital, 4 days staying locally to make sure he is ok and then home. He will have an ileostomy (again googlers) for about 6-8 weeks which is reversable, so back out to Pittsburgh at some point. And he will need chemo 2-3 months (from what I understand) after the surgery to really blast it. His surgeon is also pioneering some new research with cancer vaccines, that Rich has chosen to be part of too. It is based on the premise that your own body can fight cancer cells with the right antibodies, so they make a personalized vaccine based on the cancer cells they get from your body during surgery. Amazing. We are so lucky.

So me and the girls and some of our best g-friends forever will have some slumber parties and watch john hughes movies and eat cookie dough and of course throw some Rick concerts in and we will get by. I am actually pretty excited about having some time off over the next two weeks to be here for Reese and Lily as much as they are here for me always.

Oh and what about Chava. He is going to join the Goosebusters. There is this godsend of a woman, who has 5 cattledogs of her own (can you f-ing imagine??) and they go from golf course to golf course to goosebust. Goose poop on a golf course is yucky. Rich took Chava to meet her and the rest of the Goosebusters (I am not kidding, like Ghostbusters) Sunday and he did great. And since she is a cattledog lover she gets him and all of his cattledog stuff. Chewing, barking, jumping ect. Chava will be working from 8am until 5pm everyday and I am sure will come back looking buff and happy so we are happy for him.

Payless Pocketbooks Suck, Rick doesn't

2008-02-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

What was happening this past Sunday night.
Reese and Lamby. Cold pictures again.

So we go this weekend to upgrade the pocketbooks as the girls are hot for thier pocketbooks. Honestly, we had some pretty low-budget ones - one was a canvas bag from my company that was smaller then a big tote bag and since we had to have TWO pocketbooks on hand at any moment (the girls can usually get an "F" in the sharing department depending on intensity of teething and tiredness) and a paper Anthropologie little bag. Ok, off to the Milltown Payless, home of the $6 kiddie pocketbook. So we go, start pulling out Dora and Princess pocketbooks, and Lily goes over to the patent red-leather grown up pocketbooks. Reese picks up a pink backpack and everyone decides they hate Payless and thier stupid pocketbooks. I think this was fueled by the fact that the night before we ventured to the Bridgewater Commons and they got a taste of the Gymboree $15 butterfly and turtle pocketbooks. OK, off to Gymboree (and thanks to some leftover giftcards) we are able to get nice pocketbooks, smoothies and pretzels at Jamba Juice (we have to get 4 smoothies, one that we split into 3 cups and one for mom with a boost of the weight burner supplement). (Remember that sharing problem). Oh how they love us at Jamba Juice. Pics to follow of the disaster that ensues after you give a one year old a raspberry smoothie (great thinking) with a straw in the backseat.
For those of you as interested in my Rick habit as I am into following him around the tri-state area, the Lancaster show was beyond incredible, and since there was no security regulating the front, I got to go all the way up to the stage (well, I had 4th row tix anyway) and get a hand and a verse sung to me oh yeah and a wink. There is nothing but trouble coming my way for his NJ two-nigher in March. Hee hee.

Happy Valentines!

2008-02-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, these strollers are for our babies but we like them too.
No that's not Lily ~ Reese is holding hands with Sophie. I have named all of thier dolls, kinda fun, I can use some of the girl names that got vetoed back in the day. Big girl car seats. Kinda like Lazyboys for babies.
Running around daycare with a puffy.
How much do I love winter hats??

Sorry for the delay...I have been bugging Rich to post something but no luck. So here I am again but I made it under 1 month. Ok, as you can see above we are doing great. Climbing, talking, and all of that. They also love to sing, or at least listen to you sing, and then going in with some yelling especially to Old MacDonald. Kinda funny, but thier new favorite TV commerical is one for Trojans that has singing pigs. That commercial comes on and they both turn around like it is 7:40am and Elmos World is coming on (those of you that are also watching the 7am Sesame Street segmant more power to you). Who can resist a singing farm animal and a pig no-less?? Dare I say no one. If you come over be prepared to read the same book at least 5 times, although Reese leans toward "Bears Busy Family" and Lily likes "Goodnight Butterflies" (because she is drawn to sparklies and the butterflies are sparkly). So be ready to read 2 books to 2 babies at 1 time or else a fist-a-cuffs will breakout. No doubt.

Rich - well the surgery is scheduled for March 18th. I am just planning to be out in Pittsburgh for 2 days and coming back to take care of my girls while we wait for dad to get better and home. Its going to be tough. But I know Lily & Reese will take care of me as much as I take care of them and we hope that dad will be home in a week. I am just asking for all of your patience. I am a tough cookie and I know not everyone understands why I do what I do all of the time but just roll with it. That is what I will need from you. That is all I ask. It may not make sense all of the time but this whole situation doesn't make sense to me.

Oh the surgery, for all you googlers, its called cytoreductive surgery. It is a surgery where they administer warmed chemo to the abdomen so it directly interfaces with cancer. While they are doing all of that the doctor is looking for visable cancer, that may not be detected on all of these scans, and removes it. Its possible. There is probably also going to be a resection (make that #2) but since Rich is responding to chemo so well, we are hoping it will be laproscopic (translation - minimal incisions) vs. open (big incision like last time). Laproscopic means less hospital time quick recovery. But more chemo will take place after the surgery when he gets home and hopefully blast the crap outta cancer. Again, just roll with me.

How is the new job you ask? Good. Adjusting to the new schedule but things are going to get easier the more independant I get. Its strange having a PDA and all of that but its fun. Oh and Rick is next weekend, and I have 4th row so woo-hoo for me.

Babies and chocolate ~

Frosting Glorious Frosting

2008-01-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

One more pic of Lily and her cupcake. I told them not to be the weird kids that didn't eat cupcakes, and so you have it.
On another note, something interesting happened at dinner tonight. So I am making dinner, well almost done, and I say to Reese, ok dinner, lets go (into the dining room) at which point she goes over to the new big girl chairs (i.e. booster seats) and points to one and says her "da" which means that. So I say again to make sure, "you wanna sit in the big girl seat" and I pull out the chair with the booster seat and she starts smacking it. So neat. Then in the middle of dinner, I start cutting up bananas for dessert, and she starts saying "na-na". So again, I say, Reese do you want some banana? and she says "na-na". Ok, one developmental episode in a night is amazing enough for me, but TWO. Then Rich tells me Elmo has been doing a big banana push on Elmo's world, so she is probably banana-sensitive. Ha.

Baby Chants

2008-01-19T16:47:00.000-08:00

So this is a "video" of Reese talking herself to sleep. It is all black so its not you, just turn it up and listen. I realized that most parents don't go through the nighttime ritual we go through. On a good night, there is no crying, just the sound of Rockabye Cure and babies going off to sleep. On other nights, on days when we keep them busy and go out on playdates, parties, or shopping, they kinda recap thier day and talk to each other back and forth. Then they go into this chant where they both kinda hum and go off to sleep. I couldn't catch them doing that, but I did catch Reese talking herself to sleep tonight. How do you tape babies sleeping is what I want to know. Its so freaking cute.

Winter Break

2008-01-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is what the tunnel does to Reese.

Deville draggin Lily down the hall with his cart. How funny are Lily's feet? Kinda has that "dog- being-dragged-by-the-family-truckster" in National Lampoons Vacation. Lily was cracking up. I just realized she may be wearing white socks with brown shoes ~ ewww.

Lily meets the cupcake.
Girls like tutus. Actually Reese wore hers for the rest of the day.
Who doesn't love a girl-pirate??

Sorry about the gap in posts. Its not that nothing has been going on, actually it has been quite the opposite. I am not sure where to start. Here we go.

Lily & Reese are rockin'. They have boogied with Deville in Hoboken at a baby boogie and much to mom's suprize, a little Rick even got spun. They are moving full speed ahead with lots of hi's, byes, waves, and exploring. Loves: books books books, giving lovies, and going shopping although not much shopping actually happens. What usually happens is that Rich and I run around after them in the mall, Whole Foods, Target, or the Princeton MarketFair (which is extremely baby friendly - not alot of people ever, even during the holidays, and there are big wide corridors for baby romping, and oh yeah, good soft pretzels). Lily & Reese just went to yet another birthday party for thier friend Erin and had such a great time. Rich and I are convinced this is the place thier second birthday will be, such a great place for winter bdays!! It was in indoor baby play palace. Lots of different theme rooms for babies and kids to wander into and play ~ including a big pirate ship with a slide (which of course I was told was ok to slide down although gave about 2 inches when I sat on it), a dance studio (complete with tutus as seen above and tap shoes), a music room (drums included). At one point Reese was just running (well running as best a one year old can) down the hall screaming with glee.

I am sure I am forgetting lots of stuff but I promise to save them for future posts....other news.

Rich - Ok, since he is lacking in updates I will summerize. He met the surgeon last week and has some options/gameplans on the table, although much of this depends on lots of things. Can I be more vague? At this point, they are just checking his labwork and doing some scans later this month. The great news. He had his CEA level done last week, this is a lab that correlates with disease. If your level is above 5, this could mean something is cooking. Prior to starting chemo, his was trending up from 33 to about 53 over 2 months, but as of last week, it was 16. This is amazing. What does this mean? The chemo is working and hopefully things, ie, major surgery, will be deferred until later this spring. Woohoo.

Me - I just accepted a new job. Yup. As of January 31st I will be leaving Newark and moving to a home care company which sounds really exciting. Really for me, these types of jobs do not come around that often. It was one of those things where I wasn't looking at all, got forwarded a job, interviewed, and got it. I am scared, but excited. There is alot of flexibility with schedule and oh yeah, a car. Outrageous. Keep you posted on how it goes. So what is more exciting then a new job? How about meeting Rick Springfield?? Not joking. Keep your eyes posted for some pictures after say March 28th when he plays the State Theatre. Do you think he would like to hang at the Court after his show? New Brunswick may never be the same.

Leave you with that.

Much Love,

JessesGirlNJ

Happy 2008!

2008-01-01T16:33:00.001-08:00

Lily with the best onesie ever. Its true.
Xmas with dad and his socks.
We love our new wagon. Can't wait to drag them around Milltown in this. They love it.
Xmas Sweater.
Our little Charlie Brown.

Xmas was of course alot of fun. Although the babes don't get it, they do. They get that there are alot of people and kids around and that they have a bunch of new toys. That is for sure. And a whole new wardrobe. Rich and I are still trying to figure out what to do with all of their new toys. It seems like not only are they getting bigger, so are their toys. Hmmm. But it's not about what you get. Its about spending time with people you love and that love you and realizing how much you really can't live without them. Rich and I honestly bring this up almost everyday, just looking at Lily & Reese and thinking, "how can you love two little people so much?". Craziness. Which is why we need to get Rich better ASAP. Onto that.

Rich - Well he is chugging along on his new chemo regimen which is every week, compared to every other week last time. Its tough but if it is doing its job its really insignificant about the every week thing. One of the drugs is every week, and then every other week he gets 4 drugs. He is going to see a specialist in Pittsburgh this week, a surgeon, who is "the man". He specializes in cancers just like Rich's. He will probably be the doctor that does surgery on him, although we are not sure when. More details when he talks to the dude. The only thing we can say is that if (when?) the surgery happens, Rich will be staying in Pittsburgh for awhile, which is why he is so happy Santa brought him an Iphone.

Babies ~ sheesh. What is new. Waves, "Hi's", hugs, maybe shaking their heads no (I haven't seen this yet), eating everything (from tempeh bacon to oreos), lots of teeth (Reese 4, Lily maybe 6 or 7), Sesame Street (Elmo!!), and a new found love for puppers. Come by and see them and us sometime. We would love to see you.

Mermaid Mayham and a Non-Scarey Clown

2007-12-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

Vegan organic mermaids.
Mermaid onesies. Reeses said "Birthday Girl".
Stairs = No Mermaids Allowed.
Scariest pinata in the world. Devilles mom was nice enough to mention that Ms. Mermaid has the face of a blow-up doll. EW. Did we just go there?? (She does though!)
Stylin' in the sock monkey pj's. Thanks sock monkey. You aren't such a jerk after all.

So here are some birthday party pics. I don't have many since I was running around after at least one one-year old. Rich and I think they had a great time as evidenced by thier total anarchy when it came to naptime. They just wouldn't take one the whole day. Loved the clown (sorry no pics) and so did Ella, Deville, and Aunt Joanie! Ok a side-bar about the clown. Rich and I sooooo did not want to get a clown. But we were walking around Christmas shopping and realized we were going to have all of these kiddies (and adults) stuck in the house for a couple hours. What else could we do?? So I started calling around, pricing clowns. This is quite a complicated business. I was offered puppet shows, face painting, cotton candy "circus style", helium balloons, story time, sing-a-longs, and magic tricks. I really wasn't looking for more than 1/2 hour of baby entertainment without freaking any of the kids out. One place offered me a 90-minute clown. Seriously? I can barely sit in a movie for 90 minutes. I broke it down as just give me a couple puppets, sing-a-longs, and jokes, no dare to be great situation. All in all, lots of fun. Luckily he didn't show up intoxicated. (One company ASSURED me that they screen all of thier clowns so they don't show up "intoxicated". You thought that was just a clown stereotype. Apparently not.) Ok, back to the party, the girls got to boogie down to thier favorite tunes like "Old MacDonald", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and the "Ho-key Pokey". They did love the spinach lasagne for lunch the next day and also all of thier awesome friends and family that made thier first birthday so special and fun. Thanks Slappy. That was his name. Kinda wierd right?

Rich and I have decided not to buy them anything for Christmas thanks to all of their friends and family too. Our living room has been taken over by Ollie the Octopus (ok, we gave them him) and activity tables and animal trains and shape cookie jars and a mini-kitchen (hopefully they will not go into nutrition like thier mom although we have ruined them as far as thier food tastes. No cupcakes, goat cheese and cucumbers pleeeaase mom!!

One

2007-12-13T16:12:00.001-08:00

Lily wasn't all that into the cupcake but we did catch her smiling. Maybe she is smiling at the cottage cheese to the right.
No words.
Post-party VIP bath party.
Not a birthday picture but is this normal? She loves celery.
Sister love.

Happy Birthday Lovies!!

We can't imagine our lives without you and could not ask for more. Really. It is so hard for me to look back at the last year and think that it is over, but on the other hand things just keep getting more fun. I say to Rich everyday, can they really do anything cuter? And then the next day they do. Today, Reese pointed at a glass of water that she wanted. She never did that before. Lily could not stop hugging her new tickle me elmo. Reese was glued to the TV watching her new Elmo video laughing and smiling. I really do not know where we would be without them and going through life and chemo all over again.

Sure its hard but how can we complain when we have four bright eyes looking at us laughing over the side of the bath tub. We are so lucky to have the friends and family we have that have helped us through the past 2 years. We know that the people around us are 110% loving, understanding, and the best best best. We know it hasn't been easy for them either and we cannot express how much thier friendship, love, and patience has helped us get through it all and continues to keep us focused on getting through this now.

Anyway, back to a giant Happy Birthday Lily & Reese.

You Rule.

MomMom& Dad-ee

Last Day of 11 Months!!

2007-12-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

Rich loves this picture of Lily. Kinda a punk rock Lily in her black knit hat. Did I mention how much Fugazi she has been listening to lately?
Blocks taste good on front teeth.
Bad Santa picture but you get it. Lily is having the time of her life, not crying.

Hard to beleive they only have one more day to live it up as 11 month olds. How the hell did they get to be one so quick?? Rich and I were in the mall this weekend looking at baby clothes and I realized that they are also toddlers, not infants anymore. Not that they just turned into toddlers as far as label on clothes go, but as Rich put into perspective for me, "They are still my babies to me.".
Right.

Oi to the World

2007-12-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

New hat at Janie & Jack. It has reindeers on it. She didn't take it off for about 1/2 hour.
Lily in her hat.
Post-Santa craziness.
OH-MY-GOD-I-JUST-SAT-ON-SANTAS-LAP happiness
Love.

Kissing Santa's Butt

2007-12-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry again, no pics but soon!
Lily and Reese have learned hugs. They hug each other, a stuffed Santa head (kinda funny), and Buddy, thier giant teddy bear. Its so damn cute. I seem to say that alot. Today they were alternating hugging Santa head. Then of course they look at me like, Ahem, so I had to get in on some of the action too. We need lots of hugs in this house these days and they are so in-tune to that is just nuts.
So I go to pick them up today from daycare anticipating thier "school pictures" only to be told they didn't happen. At least for Lily & Reese, who decided they didn't like the picture lady and freaked out the whole time they tried to get thier pictures. I hope this isn't a sign about how it will go with Ole Santa probably this weekend. I can already see Lily&Reese&Mom on Santas lap while Dad stands cracking up on the sidelines saying, "I'm not going up there". Yup.

Ok, working on pics. Promise!!

Round 2

2007-11-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

I know it has been awhile since I updated the page, and our other camera broke and I tried to upload a video but that didn't work either. I promise to get the Lily&Reese eating tofurkey and pumpkin pie shots up as soon as I can.

First thing is first, as many of you know Rich is starting chemo again, actually his first day is tomorrow. After being hospitalized twice, lots of tests and bloodwork, something finally came back positive, although that positive was for cancer. We decided this time to remain calm, BREATHE, and roll with the punches and try to keep everyone else on our page too. We don't want alot of calls everytime there is a test, or everytime Rich has chemo. Just believe that it is fine. And believe in Rich. If you don't, do whatever you have to in order to really believe in him. He is amazing and Superman in the ladies of Clay Street's eyes. He did it once, knows how to do it, and will do it again. So far we have talked to a couple gastrointestinal cancer specialists, will probably talk to some more, and make the best decision we can on how to deal with this long term. For now, there are just 4 swollen lymph nodes that are barely being picked up by a CT scan and PET scan (reacts to cancer cells) that his oncologist caught and did not let go of until he found out what it was. Thank god for Dr. Nissenblatt. The man does not sleep until he has an answer and we are so lucky to have him taking care of our #1. We don't have alot of answers. We will keep you posted when we know something and that is a promise. We want to try to continue to live our lives as normal as our lives were before this ugly cancer came back. Don't go crazy, we aren't. Well, we kinda did and then we talked ourselves out of it, found some inspiration through some other awesome cancer survivors (Kris Carr, the crazysexycancer girl herself!), and looked at our little family and decided we were going to do anything we could to kick cancer's butt again. Well that last part is Rich's job. He just as 2 more cheerleaders and reasons to do it again. And he will.

So welcome macrobiotics, yoga, exercise (Chava is super excited about this part), guided imagedry, mediation, bancha tea, juicing, and positive positive-ness.

Moving on to our little mermaids. The mermaid party is all set. And no cancer talk at the mermaid party. Not permitted. Rich and I are busily trying to put on the mermaid party of the decade which is looking like it includes mermaid attire for all of the Cunninghams (you have to be here to believe it). Boys, suck it up and put on your best mer-man face (anyone remember Zoolander?? I'm not a mermaid dad, I'm a merman, A MERMAN!!). If you haven't seen these two turkeys lately you won't beleive it. They are walking. Walking ALOT. Deville can attest to this . We took them to the mall for a playdate a couple weekends ago and Reese just got her shopping shoes on and wanted to walk (without holding my hand) all around the mall. Talking. Oh we are talking. Sometimes it makes sense sometimes not. I think they are trying to say "cat" which sounds more like "at" or "dat", "dog", and maybe "that" which sounds like "dat". They can say da da, dad-dee, and mom mom mom. Reese today followed me out to the kitchen on my way to work, stopped near the stove, pointed at me, and said "dat". Oh, and Lily is pointing....to things in books which is freaky. She can point to a ball, cat, and dog. If you ask her where the flower is on the ball page, she points at the ball, but that is ok, we still think she is a baby genius. Is that normal for an 11-month old that is really 9-months old for her corrected age??

Ok, so there it is. Check out crazysexycancer's blog. Very cool. You will be inspired.

i went for a walk

2007-11-15T17:45:00.001-08:00

We went to a book reading, sing-a-long thing in Metuchen to see a face from the past from a fave band from the past (at least for one of us) that wrote a children's book and is doing a tour.

http://www.iwentforawalk.com/

Anyway, I was hugely skeptical that these little 11 month olds (happy late bday!) would make it through more than 10 minutes. Believe it or not, they were sooo into it. Maybe it was the narration that made it so interesting, but usually between 630 and 730 pm its not such a happy hour at our house. Its usuallly lots of pre-bed crankiness and rubbies. Not tonight. In fact, somehow Rich and Reese ended up in the front row, which made me more nervous anticipating a breakdown and then NO WAY to sneak out. So after the story was over, they did a little song thing and of course Reese stole the front row. Swinging her arms and screaming, mouth open, so happy. I guess all of the Rick Springfield sing-a-longs we practice to have paid off. Ha! Just ask us to put on "Kristina" the next time you come over to see Reese really have a dance off. Anyway, mid-Reese dance-breakdown, Greg just started laughing because she was probably the youngest kid in the front 3 rows (only to be beat by a 5 month old named Isabel) and she was jammin'. Lily only had one little fuss, and I was forced to hit the snack table and feed her the bottom part of a cupcake. Hey, she has had a pumpkin muffin, so really what is the difference. As Jim Gaffigan says, a muffin is just a cupcake with no icing.

ANYWAY, one hour and no meltdowns, lots of smiles and waves to all the kids and adults.

Baby Gap, baby!

2007-11-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

So of course we think our kids are the cutest in the world and entered them in the Gap Casting Call.

http://kodak.eprize.net/gapcastingcall/index.tbapp?page=gallery

If you type in heatherette74@hotmail.com in the "search by registered email address" you will see the two cuties.

So keep this in mind when I remind you to vote for them if they make the next cut.

They have to right?

June 8, 2007

2007-11-07T11:42:00.001-08:00

The TJL Foundation, a friend of ours, that has thier annual fundraiser in June, posted Rich's speech from this year. As many of you know, he spoke at thier dinner this year. It was an extremely fun and special night for us and we are so happy to know these folks.

http://www.thetjlfoundation.org/richstory.htm

Happy 1st Halloween!

2007-11-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

This is when I can see Lily in Reese. Right? This is Reese.
No, Lily is not doing her impression of a dead ladybug. She just wouldn't wake up. And check out the ghost in the graveyard pumpkin (left) and the pirate ship pumpkin (right). We both have a bad case of carpel tunnel syndrome now.
Apparently, Lily loves Butterfingers.
Happy Bug. Check out the teeth. Hello Milltown! Come to our house and check me out.

We were worried. We had some big plans for Halloween for the ladies and for most of the day they were just the CRANKIEST. That was until we pulled up to Kindercare for thier Halloween Parade. It wasn't their day to go there, but we figured we would bring them in to see all of thier friends and they just had a blast. In fact I think it was the first time all day they both smiled. Well other than when we put them in thier costumes. When they were all both dressed up there was a minute where they looked at each other and started laughing. Like, oh my god, what did they dress you up in? Me, what did they put YOU in? Are they crazy? It was downright adorable.

So then we came home, after they got to march in the parade, and we sat on the front steps like lots of other Milltowners. Its funny, lots of the people sit on thier steps waiting for the trick-or-treaters. Then when there is a lul, the neighbors go next-door and chit chat and then wait for the next swarm of kids. And when I say there are swarms, there are huge swarms. Every year we end up with only a couple of pieces of candy left. And this year we had 15+ pounds of candy, plus some skull rings, tombstone and eyeball erasers, plastic spiders, and oh yeah, halloween stickers (I try to do a nice spread for the kiddies).

Ok, back to the babies. So we are sitting on the steps and they are just waiting for the kids to come. Everytime some kids come, the kids come over to them and say things like, wow, you have TWO BABIES, and pat their heads and stuff like that. Then there was the little girl that said, Two Babies is too Much! Ha, if she only knew. So at some point I suggest we give them some downtime and try to feed them. The problem? Well everytime they see me or Rich go to the front door for trick-or-treaters, they follow us, like, HEY, I want to see the kids too! So we had to just keep them on the porch so they could squeal everytime some kids came by. It was pretty cute.

Needless to say, we think they had a blast on their first Halloween. Even though we missed the library party, I think they didn't feel like they missed out.

Pumpkin Awesomeness

2007-10-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

Preparty shots at Whole Foods.
How cute am I in my blue jeans? Ready for the farm and pre-major-diaper blowout.
How do I pick just one?
Lily vs. the giant pumpkin.
Love love love this place.

On a recommendation from skater-baby(s) we took the girls to Terhune Orchards today and they had a BLAST. The only hitch in the day was the pre-pumpkin bash major blowout Reese had and we, as responsible diaper bag packers, totally forgot a change of pants, so Reese had to smell like poop all day, which was ok since she was on the farm.

They crawled all over the pumpkins, got to see chickens, goats, and even a horse (that came over to Reese after she yelled at it and waved, oh yeah, she learned how to wave over the past two days...can she stop with all of this development already??). They got to see some other dogs and cats, which Reese decided to attack like she attacks Molly, our cat. Luckily this nice fluffy farm cat didn't claw her. Once again, great parents letting our baby pet a dirty farm cat! Oh, then they got to eat some cider donuts (what??? have they lost thier minds??? she is even a nutritionist!! gasp!!), which of course they l-o-v-e-d. They honestly didn't get fussy even once in the 2 hours we spent there. The only fuss we heard was when Reese trompled over Lily to get to a pumpkin, but even that was minimal (we are convinced Lily is just saying, God can she stop touching me?? Mom! She is touching me again.)

So all in all, awesome day and we are thinking of going back since they had such a great time. And we have some pretty awesome pumpkins to carve up this week.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-10-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

From on the porch looking in.
Reese in her Halloween shirt. Loving peek-a-boo.
Early AM romps.

At least dad was looking at the camera. Happy birthday!

And Dad was even home from the hospital and is doing much better. He was so happy to come home and see his girls, that missed him very much over the past week. And so did I. It is nice to have someone else get up in the middle of the night when they decide to stagger thier nighttime wakeups. Yes we are back to that but hoping it is related to teething or a growth spurt. On any note, Rich is better, not in as much discomfort and pain, and has some follow-up tests to do over the next week to make sure things are 100% in check. Thanks to everyone that called, emailed, and thought of him this week.

So this weekend we were supposed to away for Rich's bday but in view of everything that was going on we decided it not to be the best idea to go to Jamaica. Actually my boss convinced me when she said, Heather, do you want to deal with this in a Jamaican hospital? Good point. So instead we went to Atlantic City. Fun times. We both fell asleep on the beach yesterday for an hour, and then went to the Borgata and indugled in thier jaccuzzi and heated pool. The pool has music that you can hear underwater. It was totally amazing. If you have never been there, it is worth the insane amounts they charge you. Not quite Jamaica but super nice anyway. And we stepped up our game by not sticking to slots only, and hit the roulette table. Rich actually did pretty well and won $160 which is more than I can say we have won on slots. It was pretty funny when he hit the last time and cashed out, the dealer said, "I got you. Hit and run, way to play." Ha. The funnier part is that it was a $5 roulette table on a Sunday morning.

Ok, baby updates. Reese is taking like 6 steps. Lily is trying to keep up with her desperately. I got their report cards from Kindercare the other day and on Reese's it read "Caught her walking alone on two seperate times.". Pretty exciting. Its kinda funny to watch her walk since she is still only 10 months old and walking.

Tomorrow, as part of our planned vacation days off, we are hitting a pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins to carve up for Halloween. I think Reese is going to just sit in front of them and smack them, but that will be fun anyway. Pics to follow.

Happy 10 Months

2007-10-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Summer Wedding.
Fam Shot ~ Point Pleasant, End of Summer 2007

2 more months until the big one. that is "1". it is so crazy to think about that.
so for those of you that don't know rich has been in the hospital since thursday for dehydration. we are not sure 100% from what so we don't want everyone to start thinking the big c again. he has had a bunch of tests, CT's, blood work, scopes, ect done and so far they have found nothing. not to say that there isn't nothing going on, but i have to believe if it was something they would of found it by now. to be honest, we don't know what is going on but should know by monday or tuesday.

all i can say is that i think lily&reese are keeping us both going.

Worst Dog in the World

2007-10-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

Most of you know Chava our wondermutt. Most of you also know that he doesn't score big points with me most of the time and I have come to the conclusion I will like him when he is about 5 years old and much more mellowed out, but for now we dealing with him and all his puppy-ness (is that what you call it??).

The problem: The post-baby-meal clean-up.

Most dogs lick the floor clean when food has been thrown all over it, no matter what the food is....right?? NOT CHAVA. The girls are pretty much eating only finger foods (umm...more like whole handfuls of food and only 1/4 of it makes it to the mouth foods) so most of the time there are piles of hummus, avacado, cottage cheese, ect on the floor and on thier highchair tables. So everynight, when I put them down to bed, I give Chava full access to clean up. Some nights, he walks into the disaster area, and walks right out. I am not even kidding. Other nights, he fishes out the Cheerios and leaves the rest for me to scrape. On a good night, he will eat about 75% of the leftovers and leave all kinds of crumbs and other food pieces all over the floor and highchairs.

Why did I get the broken dog??

One thing he will try to lick out of the girls hands, between the rails of the baby gates are thier teething cookies and toasts. If you aren't watching, and that toast gets close to the "other side" of the gate, its licked out of thier hands and on the kitchen floor. At which point the girls will try to reach out and take thier toast back, covered in Chava slobber, dog hair, and all kinds of other nasty crap.

Ok, I will leave Chava alone because they do love him since he is such a spaz. They laugh wildly at the sight of him chasing his ball and all of that. He gets excited when he sees them coming in from a walk and gets this pep in his step. He better get use to sweet potatoes and tofu. Thats all he is going to be seeing for awhile.

In other news Lily officially babbles "Mom-mom-mom-mom" which of couse makes my day although she says it to everyone, but I think says it more when I am home. Reese is more of a "ba-ba-ba-da-da-da" kind of girl, so sooner or later we all knew it was inevitable she would say "dada" first right? She is making major progress in walking, and now takes 2-3 (sometimes 4) steps without holding on, and then faceplants. This is usually done with some momentum, but it is scarey to see none-the-less. I was talking to a friend at work, whose son just turned 1 and has started cruising. I was so jealous, then I realized that all of this running around is probably helping me loose my last 5 pounds before Jamaica.

Good Times

2007-09-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

Pre-swim class cover-ups. Nice bruise Lily!!
Reese and her toother.
See, they aren't identical. Double diaper swing.
I am going to be so sad when they won't fit together.

Diaper to diaper.

9-month check-up was Friday, they are getting so big!
Lily:
16 pounds, 8.5 ounces ~ 28 3/4 inches long

Reese:
18 pounds, 1.5 ounces ~ 29 1/2 inches long

And the bigger news is that Lily has 4 teeth coming in. Its the one thing she is ahead of Reese at, growing teeth. Reese has one tooth on the bottom. She is such a nut, she sticks her tounge out all day so it lies over it. So all day, her tounge is out. The doctor was suprized how much they have grown and the nurse even had to re-measure Lily twice because she grew like 3 inches in 3 months which is crazy.

So as I mentioned, the girls pretty much want to eat everything with thier hands so baby food is almost out. This has forced me to cook, which is funny. Everyone thinks dietitians can cook. Nope. We know how to tell you what to cook, how to cook it, and when to eat it. Most can't cook to save thier lives, and beleive me, I had to take many many food science labs and food prep classes. It was a joke. Lots of burnt baked goods and overcooked pasta, which I still am guilty of today. Well, this week I felt like a real mom because I cooked a sweet potato and didn't mess it up. It was perfect and the babies loved it. Now it makes all those $1.25 Organic Baby sweet potato jarred baby food's even more annoying. This week we are going to try to make homemade veggie burgers, I just can't feed them processed veggie burgers, plus alot of them are so high in salt, which aren't good for little kidneys....who knows. Maybe egg yolks first.

In an effort to keep these little minds busy we found a free baby book class at the Milltown library. The first class is Monday and apparently there are a bunch of babies signed up. They do stories and parachutes (as Rich says, "whatever that is"), and have lots of fun. Mondays are going to be big days for them now, they will go from their library class to Kindercare which they totally love love love.

One note about how much they are loving and learning at Kindercare. Now they are into hand holding. Each other's hands (how super-cute, makes me want to cry everytime I see it), and other baby's hands, and our hands. Apparently the other kids at daycare are very hand-hold-y so now they are too. Like tonight, Lily was obsessed with getting Reese to pay attention to her and hold her hand. Reese was too into the alphabet pasta, but it was cute none-the-less.

Tub Time

2007-09-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

New Tub. Thanks Baby Squared.
Bubble Beards.
Hot tubs rule.
Going to swim class - winter session.
Lovin' the swim class idea.

No warm fuzzie pics but we did take a bunch of them in thier new inflatable tub. They just love it. In the other tub, it was really single serve. This ment one was in the tub while the other stood up against the tub squeeling about how she wanted to be in the tub too. The inflatable tub (pool really) has added a whole new dimension to baby bath time as you can probably see.

The babies are sleeping BETTER through the night. Not completely through, but we will take what we can get. Now they go down 7-730 latest, and make it until about 4 (that would be Lily) where she gets another bottle, and sleeps for about another hour or so. Some of these sleeping suggestions actually work, and we have been working hard on regulating naps. Actually some days they don't take any afternoon nap, especially when they are at Kindercare, which they LOVE. It is seriously one of the best things we have done. They just seem so much more balanced. I hate to say it, but almost like Chava at the dog park. When I come to get them its like they are ready to go and off we go home. They play with the other babies, and a new set of twins started this week, so that is even more exciting for them.

In the eating department, they have tackeled lots of new goodies. Hummus, tofu, cottage cheese, and more teething cookies. The cutest thing is this week when they were eating thier little toasts, I was lying on the floor with them, watching them closely as any neurotic mother starting thier kids on solid foods, and wondered if they would share with me, so I opened my mouth. Well, Lily looked at me, looked at her toast, and put it in my mouth. Then Reese did it. It was honestly the cutest thing. How do they know how to do that? I mean they try to share thier cookies with puppers all the time, but me?? I almost cried it was so cute.

So we have our nine-month doctors appointment this week, let you know the stats. Actually its closer to 10 months at this point. YIKES. We are going to have to start party planning for the December Mermaid Party soon.

Warm Fuzzies

2007-09-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Ok so we are onto a new approach to getting these kiddos to sleep better. They were going down around 10pm (yup, 10) and getting up at 2ish, then wide awake at 6ish. That was a good night. I read all of these blogs and books now that say that most kids should be in bed between 6-9, sleep for 12 hours-ish, and not wake up most of the time. So of course I bought a book on this whole sleep thing because we are just loosing it. Come to find out, much like dog training, we are to blame for thier bad sleeping habits. Things like not putting them to bed exhausted is important because it is harder for them to go to sleep and stay asleep. Working on naps, and making it more scheduled is important. Not letting them take thier dreamy 530pm nap at all (no naps 3 hours within bedtime) ~ this was happening since their nap schedule was all screwed up and kicked back. So now we are on night two of bed by 7-730. No crying. I also got them so super cute warm fuzzy fleecy pjs. Footed so thier little feets won't get cold. That would wake me up in the middle of the night. Since we live in our big old old old drafty house, warm fuzzies are essential. I am hoping it is the magic trick. I will include some photos asap. They just look so cute in thier new winter pj's.

So this also marks week 2 of daycare, which of course they are LOVING. Today when I got there I waited outside their room for a minute (it has those one way mirrors, so you can see in but they can't see out) and watched them sitting in a circle during story time. It was so cute. Reese was just sitting there glued to Miss Jen (I still don't have thier names down...) sitting next to her two new friends Jared and Chloe. Lily was sitting on Miss Jen's lap listening and laughing. They are little people and not just little babies, which is hard to swallow, but also unbelieveably fun and cute.

Happy 9 Months!

2007-09-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

(I think this was around 4 months-ish)

Today:
Ate Cheerios for breakfast and snacks
Drank out of sippy cups
Tried to eat mom&dads tacos and drink beer
Reese stood up using the radiator (bad), let go, propped herself against the wall, and stood up for about 15 seconds, then started crying when we tried to get her to take a step
Played with Puppers
Fell on the radiator
Watched "Underwater Adventures" for 10 minutes
Took only two-twenty minute naps
Went to bed around 8pm (Lily) and 830pm (Reese but not without a fight).
We love you so much Reese & Lily.

KinderCare Day 1

2007-09-10T18:31:00.001-07:00

Sorry for no pics in advance but I will get some for next time. So the girls started thier day care gig today and absolutely loved it. Rich dropped them off at 11 and I picked them up at 4 only to find Reese playing with her new friend Jared and Lily in the buggy that they roll around the school to visit all of the kids. When I got to the door Reese saw me right away and smiled and started crawling to the door to meet me, It was so cute. Lily then of course saw me and started climbing on me so I had two babies crawling on me like a tree. I called at about 1 to check on them to find out that Lily was eating Cheerios (uh...we never gave her Cheerios before) and Reese was playing with Jared. It was funny, I just had this vision of one of the other kids eating Cheerios and Lily just going at them with her hand out acting like she had eaten them for years. Ha. Little sneak. Oh the other funny thing is that they only took one twenty minute nap each. Too much action apparently. They sent me off with a report card for the day which informed me that they had sang songs, taken buggy rides, and played with the other kids with no problem. The teacher even said she was suprized they had no separation anxiety. I think they were just happy to get out and hang out with new boys and eat Cheerios. Oh well. Tomorrow is Day #2.

Promises, Promises

2007-09-05T19:45:00.001-07:00

Lily fell asleep as soon as we got to the rides. Lucky Reese! Reese on some sort of space ship thingy with dad.
Lily at Pop's in Ella's chair. And yes those are skulls on her shoes, she is a hip baby.
The best picture we could get of us on the beach. Chaos as usual, one out of four looking at the camera.
Lily on the beach.
Oh, then Reese fell asleep after the rides, and Lily woke up. This is how it goes.

Summertime Rolls...

2007-09-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Lily BBQ'in'.
Reese can be drooley.
Lily.

I know I know. Its all about the pictures, so here they are. They are up to no good as usual. They have discovered stairs this weekend. Up to the third stair to be exact. And Reese now will say "ba ba ba ba" which I am hoping will transform to ma ma ma ma soon. We had a full weekend, which started off with Reese going to Hoboken to visit her friend Deville. She had so much fun. Its so funny to watch them chase each other around ~ crawling that is. Then we went to the baby playground which is all foamy so the little ones can crawl around and not scrape their knees. Why doesn't Milltown have one of these? She had so much fun watching the other babies, and almost broke my back because she wanted me to walk her all over the place. Rich had Lily for the day, so she got to go to Lowes to order some doors, and also to New Labor. Rich keeps telling them that that will be thier summer job one day, working at New Labor. Doing what I am not sure. We like to split them up once in awhile so that they get some 1:1 time with each of us and get to be the only baby in the world for a couple hours. They really like it. We do rotate who gets who, so this way whoever gets dad isn't always at Lowes.

Today we are off to the boardwalk for some post-Labor day fun. And the beach will be free so I will post some shots of the ladies vs. the sea soon.

Growin' Turnips

2007-08-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

My favorite time of the day. Oh and ps this is the only time they have EVER been dressed the same.
Total exhaustion watching Baby Neptune. How funny is Lily all propped up.
Reese was so excited to have fuzzy pants on this week. It was cold.
Lily being Hot Stuff.

So lots has changed over the past two weeks. Reese can motor around, stand up, and let go of things and stand for a couple of seconds. Lily can crawl, pull herself up, and also is getting daring about letting go. Needless to say there is lots of falling. Lots of bruises. Lots of crying. Rich and I come from the school of thought of "dont react" which actually works. Unless it is a big crack and then the big tears start rolling. Lily will get frustrated alot easier then Reese when it comes to moving around. If you put out your hands though, she will take them and stand up mid-major-tearfest, and then when she is standing, smile away. Oh, that is the other new cool thing. They reach out to us when they want you to pick them up. I suspect at some point this becomes alot less exciting, but its pretty cool for right now.

Rich and I have been toying with the idea of putting them in day care at least part time. Having crazy schedules has been very stressful on us, and doing swing shifts is just as hard. So we have been visiting some local places and today we went to one in East Brunswick and it was amazing. The babies were so happy. Lily actually could not stop smiling at everyone and all of the kids. They have an outside padded infant playground even which is pretty cool. I am convinced someone will have a boyfriend by the end of the first 4 months since they are such smiley little girls. Well anyway, the point of this story is that on our way home, of course everyone starts screaming, and I notice that Reese has two little white patches on her bottom jaw. Clearly little chicklets coming in. This would explain her crazy cryfests and difficulty sleeping. I can't beleive I am about to loose her gummy smile! I mean its exciting, and totally on schedule, but teeth! I don't know if I can take all of this at one time.

Baby Butts and Bashes

2007-08-14T18:27:00.001-07:00

Reese hates hats.
This is what happens now when you want to lotion and change Reese after a bath before bed. Again, Reese has someplace to go, clothes or no clothes.
Lily exer-saucering.

So this Sunday was our rescheduled baby bash. The babes had lots of fun of course since there were lots of people and other babies around. Reese is officially crawling all over the place and is determined to walk sooner than later. She pulls up on everything, including our radiator which is going to be a problem this winter, and now turns around only holding on to things with one hand. I am not sure what she is in such a rush to do. Lily on the other hand kinda leap-frogs around and can motor around too. She is trying to figure out how to sit from a crawl position. The most dramatic thing is when Reese is standing above Lily and Reese looses her balance and crashes on top of Lily. They 99% of the time knock heads and everyone starts to cry.

Aquarium

2007-08-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

That about sums up Lily's experience at the Aquarium.
Reese being a Pirate.
Loungin' at the gift shop.
In utero.

So we took the girls to the Point Pleasant Aquarium Monday and they had an awesome time. I could barely hold Lily. I am not sure what was more exciting to her, the sharks or all the kiddies. The sharks swimming toward the glass really didn't phase her, she would just jump up and down on the ledge and squeal. Reese was a bit more reserved about the whole thing, but I think she had a good time too. It was tough to compete with Lily's over-the-top response.

In other news Reese is definately crawling, just very slowly. I am sure in a week or so she will be all over the place alot faster. Lily can get around, just not what I would call a crawl. This is one thing I have learned as a twin mom. Not to get nervous or feel uncomfortable or bad when one does things first or better then the other. I was much more nervous in the beginning, when Reese would smile and Lily wouldn't and when Lily would coo and Reese just screamed. They just have different approaches to doing things, and they will have these different approaches at life which I encourage too. There are things that Reese can do better than Lily and vise versa. Its so great too. I never understood why twin moms dressed thier kids alike, and I have to say, when I was out with Lily & Reese the other day this other twin mom, with matching kids, kinda gave me the once over when she asked me "You don't dress them alike?". I just responded, they are individuals first, and there are things Lily can pull off that Reese just can't (i.e. super girly things like ruffly pink) and things Reese can work (oranges especially) that Lily can't. So no, I haven't and never will dress them identically. That's just me though and I know I have a much different take on this whole thing than many twin moms, but that's ok, one day they will thank me for it.

Screamfest '07

2007-07-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

How long can they possibly scream you ask? Well last night it was 2+ hours, tonight it was only 1. This week Lily & Reese have decided to not go down to sleep as well as they have for the past 8 months. Oh no. Now it is a negotiation with Reese, who in-turn, recruits Lily in her screamfest. In some ways, we have created some monsters. First, we let them stay up way too late in the beginning. Everyone elses kids were going down at 7 or 8 pm, ours were up until Midnight until about 1 1/2 months ago. Second, we started letting them drink bottles in order to go to sleep, drink thier bottles in thier cribs. BAD IDEA. This has made going to bed without a bottle a nightmare. I have to say, lots of moms have given me advice on putting kiddies to bed. Its a whole other ballgame with two. The same rules don't apply. There is no "crying it out". If #1 wakes up and is screaming, #2 is waking up which is a huge SUCKS. There are no good advice books out there for putting two to bed. NONE except other moms of twins. And even they don't have any good tricks. You can't take one to bed with you and leave the other in the crib. Then you are just giving one special treatment. You can't leave one screaming either. So for now we have the 15 minute rule and bottles with only water to bed. Oh and ps, now that Reese can pull herself up she works herself into such a fit that you find her standing in her crib screaming. Safe right? I think the reason she is so motivated to crawl, sit, and stand is because she gets so pissed off that we leave her in her crib to go to bed. She screams and bulldozes herself around the bed. She also cracked her egg (ie head) yesterday on the TV stand which is a totally cheap IKEA thing, so no major harm done. I should of known she would be the first to crack her noggin'.

Lets hope they sleep until at least 4am. I went to work on about 4 hours sleep today thanks to Lily waking up at 3am and not going back to bed until 415am. I get up for work at 515am. Luckily I can function quite well on little sleep nowadays. I am totally adjusted after 8 months of craziness. Conditioned.

I had a flashback of my two little burritos when Hilary sent me some baby pics from a friend of hers that just had twins yesterday. All swaddled up with the little hats. Now I have two climbers, rollers, and screamers that want to be free al night long and eat stereo wires.

Sleepless Nights

2007-07-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

Reese.Lily and her cookie. Don't worry they are dairy, soy, and wheat free.
Yes, she actually sleeps like this...Lily.
Sleeping in Princeton.
Reese sitting up trying to grab me.

So Friday night I drove down to DC for a conference Saturday sponsored by The Cancer Project (it was part of one of my classes). Anyway it was the first time I have been away from the babies overnight. I was planning on going to bed by 10 and waking up at 7 and then enjoying pancakes and coffee. Well I couldn't fall asleep until 1130 and then proceeded to wake up at 230am, 430am, and 615am. I had to get up at 7 anyway so I just got up and watched TV. I didn't stop thinking about the little buggers all night, well actually since I got in the car to drive down to DC. Don't think I will be doing that again anytime soon.

So Lily and I went to a baby shower today and she had such a good time with the other babies once again. Reese got to spend the day at New Labor with her dad which was fun for her. I think she helped someone write a resume or something like that. They are getting so busy with their creeping and now pulling up a little. They also continue to steal toys from each other which is so funny to watch because what usually happens is that Lily will steal something and then just as Reese is about to grab it Lily will roll over so Reese can't reach it. Ha.

Five New Things About Lily & Reese

2007-07-18T17:51:00.001-07:00

1. Reese can go from creeping (not crawling yet thank god) to sitting up.

2. No matter where you put the two of them on the floor (i.e. opposite ends of the room), in a matter of seconds, they will find each other and one will end up getting kicked in the face or head.

3. If you leave the phone, or even a barrett on the floor, they will find it and eat it.

4. Reese weighs exactly one pound more than Lily (Reese = 16 pounds 2 ounces, Lily = 15 pounds 2 ounces).

5. They officially proved they were Cunninghams when they housed a bowlful of pumpkin tonight with a little nutmeg and pears.

High Chairs and Brunch

2007-07-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

Lily at Long Branch, NJ.
Reese!
Holy Cow I love this chair.
Happiness.
This is actually how Lily likes to sit in the high chair. It's kinda funny because I like to drive this way, with one leg up, usually not out the window though. At least since I was 17 years old.

BBQ's and New Cars

2007-07-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

I thought I would add some more recent pictures of Lily and Reese at thier first Jersey City BBQ. Although they were the only babies, they still had a great time watching

three (yes three) dogs that all could not lick them enough. In other news, the ladies are riding in style in thier new Hyundai Santa Fe. It has made the car seats and also double stoller much more comfortable compared to the Honda Civic. Oh and also they can enjoy the free XM radio for 3 more months, which so far we like. Ha.

Today we ventured down to Long Branch for brunch. It was thier first brunch out (we even tried them in highchairs!). They were so good. Not one tear or scream. They were too intrigued by all of the other people and kids and also my breakfast which ment handfuls of salsa for Reese. Its so funny how much they stare at other people in order to get them to look thier way. Its a good thing babies get away with staring or we would be in big trouble.

2007-07-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Lily eating sand sandwiches.
Sand sand sand in Point Pleasant.
Lovin' the boardwalk.
Swim class #2 with dad, Reese making the fat kid face. Ha!

The babies have had a busy 4th of July weekend for sure. Not only did they love thier second swim class (learning to float on thier backs), but have attended not one but two bbq's and totally loved them both. At Peter and Ali's they even got to play in a sandbox and go in the baby pool with the big, well other one-and-a-half year olds.

As Promised!

2007-07-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

Carrots!
Reese in her cuteypie bathing suit.
Lily in her retro 70's suit.
After swim class.

I love the swing.

Raspberries

2007-07-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

That is all Lily wants to do today, blow raspberries and smile at people.

Butternut Squash!

2007-06-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

We are moving right along with the eats. Now our baby menu includes avacado, peas, green beans, carrots and now squash. How exciting. Next up is looking like sweet potatoes, then on to fruits and tofu!! I was at the DMV this week and got on the topic of bringing up my kids as vegetarians with the DMV lady. I had no idea where it could end up, ie, either me getting my liscence put to the bottom of the pile or expidited, luckily she was a vegetarian too and moved me right along. Thank god.

In other news, the babies have been quite busy. This past weekend they got to go to the shore and hit some rides at Point Pleasent. Lily was more into the crazy bus and Reese seemed to be a fan of the merry-go-round. Her dad managed to squeeze in 2 rides on the merry-go-round which she seemed to like! Then we had baby swim class Sunday morning which was also super fun. Granted jumping around in a circle singing ring-around-the-rosie is a little corny, but the babies got to bust out their super-stylish bathing suits and splash around. Another fun time. This weekend is looking like another beach trip on Saturday and maybe Brunch Sunday which will be interesting. I think Reese is going to want the Hawaiian French Toast.

Swim pictures soon!

Rich update for those that were wondering...

2007-06-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

I know this is a baby blog, but since I am the one that usually updates it because Rich is too busy taking care of babies by day and working by night, I have decided to give a little Rich update since so many great things have happened to him lately.

Well last Friday, June 8th we were invited to attend a Colon Cancer Benefit for the TJL Foundation what recognized Rich last fall as a colon cancer...well I am going to say survivor since he has been disease free now for 6 months, and gave him a donation from the foundation. This was perfect timing since I went out on maternity leave 2 months before we had planned. Needless to say, the benefit, held at the Jersey City Hyatt, was amazing, and Rich spoke about his experience with diagnosis (or misdiagnosis) and treatment to a crowd of about 200. You know he had the attendees clapping and buying more raffle tickets by the end of his speech (the man does now how to hold a mic and clap at the same time). It was a great night and some of us even won some of the prizes at the silent auction. Fun!

As many of you know, Rich goes for CT scans every 3 months to monitor for any new "developments" or things that look suspicious. This time, well, about 2 weeks ago he had some suspect lymph nodes and had to go for further testing which stinks, since we have never had to go for further evals after the CT scans. Usually Dr. Nissenblatt just calls and says, "You're fine! See you in 3 months." Of course I was nervous (not Rich so much) and come to find out everything is just fine and he remains cancer free.

SO THE BIG NEWS. Since he was fine on this round, he was able to have his port removed. His port is a catheter that was placed prior to chemo that was actually in one of his major veins so when they gave him chemo they didn't destroy his veins since chemo has a tendency to do that. Yay, the port is out, now we need to keep it out.

Baby news ~ well, we broke down and bought a non-moblile exer-saucer. We are 100% against them until we went to babiesrus and put Lily in one and she loved it. (Reese was sleeping). Oh another great place we have been taking the babies. I call it the zoo, but its really called PetSmart. But its really like the zoo for babies. They get to see all of the animals and crack up at the birds (there is a bird room) and ferrets. oh and its free, even better.

Ok, enough news for now.

PEAS!

2007-06-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

Today was the babies first day of real food, well, other than rice cereal. They loved the peas. Well, I say loved, but everyone says that thier kid spit out the first food they offered them, not ours. Now they are on the rice cereal, formula, and organic pea diet. I think by next weekend we will introduce green beans. Woohoo. Sorry no pictures, I will have to download and post for next time but I have to say, the peas came out looking rather brown in the pictures, so its kinda gross.
They also had their 6 month doctors appointment on Friday. Here are the new stats:

Lily:
Ht: 25 inches 25th percentile
Wt: 13 lbs 5 ounces 10th %ile ~ where she has been since she was an itty bitty
Head Circumference: 42 3/4 cm 50th percentile
GO LILY!!

Reese:
Ht: 25 inches 25th percentile
Wt: 14 lbs 11.5 ounces 25th %ile
Head Circumference: 43 cm 50th-75th %ile
GO REESE!!

Kinda funny, despite how much they look different sizes, really the only difference is thier weight. They are the same length and have the same size heads (just different shapes I think). They are making progress since when they started they measured in the less than 5-10th percentiles for everything.

Swim lessons start June 24th ~ that is the other big event coming up for the babies and we will be sure to take lots of pictures too.

6 months!

2007-06-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

Unimpressed Lily.
Who me need attention?
Close to crawling!!

Ok sorry about the lapse in blogging, it has been a crazy couple of weeks but hopefully now we will be back on track with posts and pictures. (Sorry if some of these pics are dated, but how boring is a post without pictures). In baby news, Reese is (we are thinking) weeks maybe days from officially crawling. All she needs to do is lift her head and she will be full-on crawling, but for now she just bulldozes across the floor with her head on the ground and her butt in the air. Funny thing is that Lily has started doing this, by watching Reese. Ha. Both the babes are loving thier daily feedings of rice cereal and will probably start with some avacado this weekend. They say that avacados are one of the best first foods for babies, naturally mushy, and very nutritious. Organic avacados here we go.

We have finally aquired a double stoller much to my resistance. It is a great double stroller actually and is smaller then some singles. It puts the babies one in front of the other so we have to rotate who goes in front since that baby seems to get more attention and then the other one gets upset. So the babies have been making lots of outings, including a BBQ at Mark&Erika's, a stroll down the Point Pleasent Beach Boardwalk (sorry no rides or cotton candy yet), a walk to the Milltown Ice Cream Depot, and Reese even got to go with Rich to Home Depot this weekend (don't get all crazy, Lily was napping and I needed to wash bottles) where everyone kept going up to Rich saying, "What a cute Little Guy!". Was it because she was in Home Depot with her dad, due to the fact that she was wearing an AQUA romper thing (with flowers)???, or just because she looks just like Rich and is destant to just be mistaken for a boy for the rest of her life. I am not sure.

Happy 5 Months and Mother's Day!!

2007-05-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Reese&Dad
Reese havin' a good time.
Lily smiles again!
Mom and Reese on the front steps.

So here we are at 5 months ~ been going out a bunch on day trips to get out of the house and get the babies use to being in the car and stollers for the summertime. We walked up to the Milltown Ice Cream depot yesterday which was fun and they even have tofutti. Also our wedding photographer Zlatko came by yesterday for a photo-session of the babies. It was actually alot of fun :). We are excited about having everyone by next weekend for the baby bash. I am hoping it will be nice outside so we can have the house opened up and have things in the backyard. Our wisteria and azelas are blooming so it looks even nicer.

Happy 5 months Lily Munster & Reese-a-Roni!