Getting girlie...

Hey there everybody! Hope you're enjoying the end of summer. It's still stinkin' hot here in Sacramento. Today should reach a balmy 104F (40C) and it's days like this when I'm thankful my Daddy is an HVAC engineer and that we have the most awesome, efficient, super-cool air conditioning ever!

Life has been busy around here, particularly because it seems Mommy and Daddy are nesting. They've been systematically going through all our closets and getting rid of anything we're not using... including some of my old TOYS! They keep telling me it's to make room for the babies, and I'm starting to think that these kids may infringe on my lifestyle a little. Anyway, Daddy has almost finished refinishing our TV cabinet and it's now vanilla white. And Mommy and Daddy have painted the wall behind that cabinet Aztec Brick (kinda like a terra cotta color). They're getting new couches for that room too, primarily because we are going to need a sofa bed considering the babies will be taking our spare room. They will be finding out the genders of the babies in just over 5 weeks and then they will be attacking the nursery. There's some definite nesting going on...

I've been keeping busy helping them with the organization. I've also been enjoying spending time with Mommy "getting girlie". Last weekend she gave both of us pedicures and then curled my hair for church. I was SOOOOOO excited and just sat there smiling in the mirror while she did my hair. Since then I've asked a couple of times for her to curl it again! I'm really getting into this "girlie thing"! Hope you're all staying cool!

Mommy's Post: 13 weeks down...

Hi everyone... Molly's Mommy here. Today I had my 13-week pregnancy appointment, which means I'm 1/3 of the way done. It was a great appointment and I'm happy to report that everything is looking great. I'm healthy and the babies are healthy! I found it interesting that although I'm the same size now as I was around 25-weeks pregnant with Molly (see photo below), I've only gained 4 pounds. Go figure!


The cool thing about having twins is that I get more ultrasounds. It's totally neat to see the babies moving and kicking around in there. Here's the latest sonogram picture. Although it's not the best quality picture, you can catch the gist of what's going on in there. Baby A is on the right and you can see him/her in profile. The bump on the abdomen is its arm and its little legs are extended "mid-kick". Baby A was hopping all over the place, kicking its legs out from the fetal position. It was cracking me up! All you can see of Baby B in this picture is the top of its head (the oval blob in the top left quadrant), but we watched as Baby B waved its arms around like it was conducting a symphony. Perhaps this is an early insight into their different personalities? You can see in the picture the membrane between the two babies. It's good that they're not sharing a sac, because there's less worry of "entanglement issues" (e.g. cords wrapped around necks). But of course, only identical twins share a sac and we are 99.999% sure these guys aren't identical.

Seeing those little babies kicking and moving around in there finally calmed my heart about the whole "twin thing" and I found myself falling in love with those little babies! In fact, I listened to Christian praise music and cried on my way to pick up Molly knowing that there are two little miracles living and growing inside of me. What a privilege!

And finally, here's some interesting "twin facts" for you that I came across during my reading:

1. I will probably be around the same "girth" at 30 weeks pregnant with the twins as I was when I was full-term with Molly (yikes).

2. When you're carrying twins your blood volume doubles. That explains why they expect you to drink sixteen 8-ounce glasses of water each day. I found it interesting that one of the major causes of preterm labor with twins is dehydration!

3. They recommend that women carrying twins consume 3,500 calories a day. Studies have shown that mothers who gain 24 pounds by week 24 reduce their chances of giving birth either prematurely or to low birth-weight babies.

4. The average length of twin pregnancies is 36 weeks (as opposed to 40 weeks for singletons). That's only 23 weeks away for me... gulp...

5. The average weight of twins at term is about 5.5 lbs. So little!!!

6. And the final useless factoid... Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are actually fraternal twins, not identical. If you don't know who those people are, don't worry about it because you're not missing out.

Did someone say "Canada Pictures"?

Alrighty... Mommy found the card reader and finally took some time to download her photos. Took her long enough, eh? Anyway, there where hundreds of photos to weed through, but these should represent some of the highlights of our trip. My Auntie Shelley wanted me to particularly show the ones that showed Canada's west coast in it's finest... in full sun! I think she's afraid that everyone will think she constantly lives under the gloom of cloud.

Anyway, our family stayed in Victoria, British Columbia with Mommy's sister Michelle (Shelley) and her husband Todd. We were only 25 minutes away from my grandparents' house, where Aunt Trish and her family were staying so that was convenient. Here's me and Aunt Shelley. I loved her and cried when I had to say goodbye.


Our first full day in Canada was spent down in Victoria's harbour. We went to the Undersea Gardens (a small aquarium) and then took a ferry shuttle to the piers where we ate fresh halibut and chips. It was sooooooo good. But the highlight for me was when Aunt Shelley bought us some fresh sardines so we could feed Sammy the Seal who was hanging around begging for food. I wanted to take him home with me, but Mommy refused...

For much of the trip, the weather was fabulous, so we spent a lot of time at the beach with various family members. Here's my cousin Maya jumping through the waves...

And here Mommy is giving me a biology lesson on crabs!

And here's Daddy showing off and walking on water...

And of course we had to feed the local wildlife. Here I am throwing bread to some Canada geese and loving on some goats at the petting zoo! The baby goats were ADORABLE and I kept trying to pick them up, but for some reason they didn't appreciate that.

The highlight for me was spending time with family, including my Nani and Papa, Trish and Dave, and even Mommy's entire extended family (her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins). It was the first time her entire extended family had been together since Aunt Shelley's wedding! What a blast!

Here's all my cousins on Mommy's side: Maya, Alex, and Emily (Mommy's cousin's little girl) who is only two monthes older than me!

All in all, it was nice to find time to relax together as a family, enjoy the sun and be tourists. Mommy felt it was the most relaxing trip she's had in a LONG time! But we miss all you Canadians already! It was sad to say goodbye!

We're Home!

Well, we made it back safe and sound from Canada. We had a fabulous vacation, filled with visits with family, trips to the beach, and eating out! The weather started out kinda cold (the 60's) but warmed up to the high 80's by the end of the trip. We couldn't have asked for a better time! I'll post more soon with some pictures, however right now Mommy can't find the card reader to download the photos. So the details of the vacation I'll leave to the next post.

The vacation was fabuolous but the travelling itself was a little wearisome, particularly for Mommy carrying those babies in her tummy. We flew into Seattle (cheaper), rented a car and drove the rest of the way north. On the way up it was fairly uneventful, except Daddy had a run in with a Washington State Trooper and now has to pay a speeding ticket. Oops! I guess you can't drive like a Californian in Washington! But the trip home was exhausting. We decided to take the "scenic route" down the Olympic Pennisula, which apparently should have only been a 2.5 hour drive. It ended up taking 4 hours because of all the summer road construction! We must have been stopped at 15 different road improvement projects. Needless to say we JUST made our flight and literally had to run through the airport to the gate and onto the plane. Whew!

It was a great time, but we're happy to be home in our own comfy beds. More details and photos to follow...