What a Wonderful Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2008 to All! I'd like to start this blog with a short list of things that Chris and I never even imagined we'd be dealing with this year. I will title this list "Stuff That Chris and Amy Can't believe They are Getting Used To"
1. Spit up is a part of any fashion ensemble.
2. Discussions of poo, variations in color, texture and variety, have replaced passionate political talk around the house.
3. It takes 3 hours to pack the mini-van to go to an engagement down the street.
4. #3 on the list specifies that yes, we do have a mini-van.
5. Our lives consist of minutes between feedings.

6. A "blow-out" is no longer in reference to a flat tire, but instead requires a change of at least three articles of clothing.
7. We no longer think anything of the creepy pumping accessories permanently drying on the side of the sink.
8. Sleeping two three-hour stretches is considered totally fantastic.
9. We think a relaxing evening out at a restaurant consists of going to the zooiest possible environment so that our screaming children blend into the din of the surroundings.
10. Everyone in the world has seen my boobs and I'm not even getting paid extra like a Hollywood actress would.

We had a wonderful December. Oliver and Liam had a ton of visitors and their mom took them on their first day visit by herself to Julie Gambill's house. (It's way more difficult than it sounds to take two infants and a dog anywhere by yourself in the winter.) The boys had their two month well-visit to the pediatrician and have gained a ton of weight and are quite healthy. They are only in the 5th percentile of size, but I am overjoyed by this as it is difficult enough to cart them around at 10 pounds a piece.
Liam and Oliver are getting more fun by the second. They are smiling like crazy, standing up on people's laps (or the dining room table), pushing themselves up while on their bellies, and in general charming the heck out of most sane people. It's very nice when in crowds to have two babies to hand out, so no one ends up bogarting the only baby in the room. And the boys seem to get along with each other very well. They are very content laying on their sheepskin together on the floor playing with toys dangling above them. Their sleep cycles are still unscheduled, but they are beginning to stretch in the night from time to time- up to 5 1/2 hours one night! They just keep getting better and better. Recently they look a whole lot like shaved ewoks when they cry. Is it bad to laugh while your children are crying?









Right before our Christmas marathon travels, we got a lovely visit from our friends Matt and Mimi O'Connell from South Carolina, who are planning on having a little Tiger Woods in June, 2008. Congrats! We were also visited by Kate Bailey (soon to be married lady) from San Francisco, and Jeff Difranco from Seattle. Apparently, Dr. Difranco recently had a mathematical operation named after him. It's called the Difranco Law or something exciting.




We spent the days leading up to Christmas and Christmas itself in Buffalo with the Scherer family. This was a very cool time because Joe and Katie Scherer (Amy's bro and sis-in-law) also have a baby- Andy- and a three and a half year old- Johnny. This lead to quite a bit of little boy havoc and tom foolery. The grandparents, parents and boys enjoyed themselves.





















Also, Liam and Oliver were able to meet Aunt Megan for the first time. She flew in from her new home in Forks, Washington for the week. She and the boys are very fond of each other.

Oliver and Liam also met Aunt Sarah and her fiance Jake for the first time. They flew in for the week from Florida. (There's a picture of them with the family at the end of the post).



















While in Buffalo, we celebrated the Scherer-Brent-Gambill-Ivers-Reinert Holidays. All I can say is that it was LOUD. The twins are certainly going to have to get used to a chaotic, circus like environment while playing with this side of the family. Pictured are Uncle Chris (who BEGGED to get blogged) and Gracie Gambill. Chris and Cat have recently announced their impending bundle of joy- a baby girl???? due in June, 2008. Congrats!

One of our happiest holiday moments is when Aunt Lauren unveiled her gift to Liam and Oliver- these unbelievable paintings for their room. The detail is totally amazing. In each painting, Lefty and Poppy (our cat and dog) are featured around the world doing fun activities: skiing in Nepal, practicing Yoga in India, eating noodles in China, going to Machu Picchu in Peru, protesting in Washington DC, etc. Lauren is one amazing artist and aunt.


From Buffalo we went to Ithaca to have holidays with the Ivers/Trinci/Charron family. Babcia-Babcia (Barb's mom) was finally able to meet her great grandsons. Pictured is a four generation photo- Babcia-Babcia, Regular Babcia, Chris and Liam and Oliver.












Oliver and Liam also met their Aunt MaryAnn and Uncle Tim Charron (Barb's sister and Brother-in-law). We had a fun and eventful time in Ithaca. The grandparents even let us go out for an extended lunch as they babysat and bottle fed.
























Back home we got a visit from our friendsDan and Laura who are living in and being educated in Williamsburg, Virginia. They were really too good with babies to be baby-less for long.
















For New Year's Eve, we attended a party at Lauren and Erik's place. For the past nine years Chris and I have hosted a party which has turned into quite an annual bash. We missed many friends who usually travel to Geneseo for the party: Karen Parker, Al Baby and Christy, Craig and Emily, Hao and Liz, and even Rachel and Tony who have now moved to Geneseo, but went back to North Carolina for the holiday. Happy New Year to you all and WE MISSED YOU!!! Maybe we can try again next year with babies???

The New Year party was very fun and very cool- Lu got all kinds of fancy cheese and wine. I drank a glass and almost passed out. The boys got held by all kinds of excellent friends and had a nice time as well. I actually made it to bed after midnight!!!! That's a first in a while.
(Pregnant Cat and Uncle Jonathan with well-behaved babies.)



























Uncle Jonathan stayed and helped out the week after New Years and he had a great time bonding with Liam and Oliver. He is awesome with the boys! We're so happy (and grateful) that he took a whole week off of work to help out.

















The boys joined us in celebrating Grandpa Scherer's 65th Birthday. Happy Birthday!!!!



Gammy holding babies.



The Scherer Family dignified and not so much at Christmas.

Two months is better than One

All is well in Baby Land. The boys are growing like crazy and are cute as buttons. The are strong little little guys and are keeping their necks up, standing with help, and thrashing about in general. Neither Oliver or Liam is smiling on demand yet, but I think they are both close. They are, however, extremely bright eyed and alert. They enjoy books, singing and mirrors (I think they think they're looking at their brother.)





For the past few weeks we have had very exciting visitors and visits. David, Siri and Elle Burin (David is Chris' oldest mate) came to visit during Thanksgiving week and we had a wild night of partying. Haha. We sat around talking about poop and breastfeeding. Their Elle is almost two and is an adorable pip.






For Thanksgiving, Chris, Amy, Liam, Oliver, Poppy and Lefty got in the van and traveled to Ithaca to spend the weekend with the Ivers. On the actual holiday, so many people wanted to hold the babies that Chris and I sat around like zombies. I don't really remember it but I know it was great. We had dinner with the Funke family, shopped on the Commons, and I had my first 5 full hours away from the boys while Babcia and Grampy babysat and bottle fed! Uncle Jonathan got to do some serious bonding with babies.

When we got home from our travels, we got an exciting first visit from our COUSINS, Johnny and Andy Scherer (and Uncle Joe and Aunt Katie, of course.) This was incredibly fun and the start of many adventures and mischief- making to come. Aunt Katie was helpful, as usual. Johnny brought his new Thomas the Train cars and he and Chris played with our train set. Andy sat and smiled like the chill and contented baby he is. And Uncle Joe brought us lunch. What a great visit!






















We also had a fantastic visit with Aunt Lipa, Uncle Keith Jones and Chris Perry. Aunt Lipa turned 30 in late November and we wish her the best for her 30's!!!
















Other than the unbelievably helpful visits from grandparents, Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ick, and Rachel and Tony, we had one more very exciting visit from Uncle Harry. He came in from New York during week seven for a music conference and was able to make a stop down to Geneseo to give Oliver and Liam Hannukah gifts and Russian voodoo medicine for me. He loved the boys and is now in much better graces than Aunt Dina, who stayed in NY for some reason (possibly she has a job and life but whatever...)















Here are the darling Liam and Oliver in their Christmas suits given to them by Gammy.



A bright eyed Oliver.

Week Five and Staying Alive

I may sound like a moron to those of you who have kids but this is really HARD WORK. I used to think that an accomplishment was, say, completing an advanced degree or possibly getting a Fulbright Scholarship. Now I think an accomplishment is giving two babies a bath and doing some vacuuming while also keeping myself fed and reasonably clean. You can't keep too clean because babies always somehow get something moist on your clean clothes. Maybe spit up, maybe poop- who knows. I think that every year the local high school should have an awards ceremony for parents who make it through another year and keep their kids alive. Some official could call up each parent in the community and give them a gold star per child alive that year. I've only done this for a little over five weeks and already I think I deserve some sort of sticker- possibly even a scratch and sniff sticker- for my efforts. And I'm not even doing it alone! I have grandparents and a sister here almost every day helping me. And I have nice babies.
Week five was hard work- if you didn't catch that. The babies are thriving, but they had the dreaded "growth spurt" during which they needed to feed about every two seconds, and I ended up with double mastitis. I don't want you to feel bad for me. I want you to feel REALLY bad for me. (Hahahaha)

Despite my complaining, the Oliver and Liam are AWESOME and growing by leaps and bounds. Both boys can focus on faces and other objects, can track with their eyes, can push themselves up off of their chests when on their tummies, can hold their heads up, and both Liam and Oliver have started smiling from time to time. The other morning when I took Liam out of bed he gave me such a wide smile I almost tripped- it was fantastic! Even when they're fussing they're cute.



We had a lot of nice visitors in the last few weeks including all of the Grandparents who helped out tremendously. Shown are Babcia and Grampy Ivers. Also, Aunt Rachel, Aunt Lu and Uncle Ick and Cory, Brianna and Roghan Foster.
We also had our first few outings (other than walks around the block). First we tried Lauren and Erik's for some football action, and since we were highly successful, attended Oliver and Liam's Grand Uncle Art's 65th birthday party.
We are looking forward to a Thanksgiving at the Ivers and a Christmas at the Scherer's.
Let's toast to safe and healthy holidays and restful nights!

Spooky Stuff: Halloween and Baths

The Ivers Boys had another exciting week. They experienced their first tub baths which they both enjoyed very much. I'm sure they'll be mildly angry at me in about 13 years if they see I sent out naked pics, but they're so cute I can't help it. Neither peed in the water until the 3rd bath which made me very happy.


We had some exciting visitors this week: Steve, Lisa and Paige Brent; Aunt Judy and Aunt Pat; and Grampy and Babcia Ivers who stayed and helped me with baths, fussy babies and sanity. The Aunts came and made us a delicious dinner and then presented Liam and Oliver with hand-made quilts. What lucky babies these are to have such fantastic and talented relatives!








We also celebrated Oliver and Liam's first Halloween. Oliver was a cat and Liam was a pumpkin. As you can see from the photos, they are enjoying their costumes immensely.


The boys are darling and sweet babies and with all the help we're receiving from family and friends, this is a very happy household. The other night, the boys even let me sleep for a whopping 2 3/4 hour stretch!!!!!!!! Can you imagine??? I can't believe I used to be able to sleep for 9 hours straight. Or stay up past 10pm. Welcome to crazy town.


Here is Tony, some Peruvian babies, and a very hungry little Liam. We tried to tell him that you can't get milk out of ankles, but he isn't a very good listener. Sometimes he tries eating Oliver's head. He also fails to get milk there but valiantly tries.








P.S. If you're looking for a diet plan, try breastfeeding twins. It takes a bit of time out of your day but you can eat literally ANYTHING and lose a ton of weight.