A visit from Lila and Sara

Today the twins met their slightly older (by about 17 months) friend, Lila Claire. Lila is the daughter of Dave and Karin's friends, Sara and Don. Lila loved pushing Nate in the swing!

Nate & Ella Gain Weight

Nate and Ella had another weigh-in today. Nate is up to 8 pounds, six ounces. Ella is now 6-3! In other news, Nate peed on a medical assistant and made her scream. I mean, c'mon. Act like you've been there!

One Month Old

The twins are one month old today! Hard to believe! Tomorrow is also their 40 week due date. Today we went for a nice long walk since it was a beautiful day in Seattle. Highlights included stops at Starbucks and Volunteer Park. They even got solicited to buy a copy of Real Change for the first time!

Nate and Ella Meet Cousin Jess

We're a bit late posting this, but cousin Jessica (Dave's niece) popped in from Portland last Saturday, while her mom Karen was here. Here, she snuggles with each new little one:





And here's a shot of Aunt Karen with Nate:

Latest Weigh-In

Nate is up to 7 pounds, 8 ounces! Ella is up to 5-7, or just shy of a pound over her birth weight! The doctor is very pleased.

Dave's sister Karen headed home to Portland today after helping out for a week. Cousin Jessica (Karen's daughter) also visited Saturday-Sunday. Grandma T. returns on Tuesday!

Gym Dandy

Ella and Nate LOVE their newly assembled activity gym. Here's a video look (apologies that the quality isn't as good on this one.) Don't miss Karin's almost-cameo role.

Splish Splash They Were Takin a Bath

With an assist from Aunt Karen (Dave's sister), Karin and I gave the twins their first official home baths yesterday (rather than just wipe-downs). Ella seemed to enjoy it:





Nate, unfortunately, wasn't as delighted:



But he settled down and did OK ...

Ella Meets World

Ella checks out her surroundings. Un film de Dave.

Karin "Scorsese's" New Movie

Here is Karin's first attempt to make a movie with our camera. I like the dialogue, especially this line:

"Well, that's the end of the movie."

It is also evidence: I talk to my children like I'm an idiot:

Sleepy sleep sleep ...

Here are a couple more pictures. Both Nate and Ella are doing great -- already 16 days old! They still sleep most of the time between meals, but they are starting to get a bit more active. Increased tummy time and playing with their activity pad are on the agenda in the days to come.

Karin's mom, Kathy, has been here for a couple of weeks and has been a huge help. My sister Karen is driving up from Portland Monday to pitch in. We are very grateful!

Friday weigh-in

Happy to report that Ella has already surpassed her birth weight and is now 4 pounds, 9 ounces. Nate is almost there -- he is still an ounce short at 6-0. But he gained five ounces in the last three days. The doctor is very pleased.

Brother and sister

More pics

These pictures were taken last week on the day Nate and Ella were born. Uncle Kevin, Uncle Colin, and Aunt Erin came up to the hospital that afternoon to meet their first niece and nephew. My parents, who didn't arrive until two days later, were a little jealous my brothers got to meet the babies before them. Hopefully the visit didn't conflict with Uncle Kevin's happy hour schedule.

Nate shows off a special skill

I'll come right out and say it: Our son Nate has an uncanny ability to pee in mid-diaper change. He got three of the nurses at Swedish. He's gotten me multiple times. And today, at the doctor's office, he hit a new high. Laying on his back, he peed in an arc over his shoulder with a perfect trajectory and hit the CLEAN diapers I had laid out for him. Fortunately the doctor's office had some extras. :-)

Videos of Ella and Nate

Twins here & home!

Back to the blog after a pretty hectic past few days! Our beautiful twins, Ella Philanise and Nathaniel James, were born on Aug. 26. We thankfully avoided any time in the NICU and were able to bring them both home last Friday. I've included a couple of pictures.

So far, so good ... doctor's appointments have been going well and both seem happy. Karin's mom, Kathy, joined us on Sunday morning, and we now have a schedule in which each of the three adults has a chance for a stretch of sleep. That has been huge already!

Lots of great stuff ahead -- we'll do our best to update the blog regularly!