Our Kids

Well Piper has moved into her own bed. She is a little scooter in her sleep and needed more space so she moved out. Its okay because we had two cribs anyway. The clothes we thought they would never grow into are now the clothes they are quickly growing out of. Everyday they get more and more fun. Because they were born 4 months ago the pediatrician said they may even demand food in a month! We can’t believe that will happen but who knows.

The girls are doing fantastic and we could not be more grateful.

So I was a military brat, moved almost every two years if not sooner. Sometimes I thought that the life we led robbed me of the opportunity to become a dancer or performer while giving me the opportunity to see the world, meet all types of people, be exposed to many cultures and become a very independent and strong woman. But…..now I realize that the skills I have, my natural coordination, my wit, my silly side, my compassion, my ability to give 110% was never meant to be channeled into dancing, acting, being a comedian or any other performance art.

My coordination and wit was given to me so that I could have twins and balance a baby on my knee, rock one in a car seat with my foot, eat my breakfast and entertain the love of my life over pancakes. My coordination, compassion and wit are what I am most grateful for today.

It’s been a while since I wrote a sappy “I love these girls” entry, so here goes…

These girls are an absolute joy. They just hit their four-month birthday and I can’t get over how much they’ve changed in that time. They’re really starting to smile and almost laugh now… I think I said “Hi Piper!” fifty times last night while trying to get her to smile at me. As soon as I turned off the video camera, she smiled

The girls have been pretty nice to us at night lately… the past few days they’ve both been ok with being put in their crib around 9 or 9:30pm, and they sleep for a good five to six hours before waking up hungry. That’s the “give” and we appreciate it.

The “take”: the girls will wake up around 6am or so (three hours after their first nighttime feeding) and they’re really not interested in going back to sleep anytime soon. They used to give us until 8am or even 9am until they had some “awake” time, but now we jump right in at 6:30am. That’s alright… that just means more time for smiles.

That’s it for now… thanks for checking in on the girls.

It’s time for another movie… this one is where the girls are just having some fun.

The girls went to their first baseball game today. It was really nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine and great views. The park looks right onto the mountains so if you aren’t watching the game the scenery is spectacular.

We were there for a few hours and they did great. They just hung out in the safety and comfort of their shaded car seats. They ate a little, slept a little, watched the sky a little and all in all enjoyed themselves and so did mom and dad.

We got a season pass so I am sure we will be seeing a few more games this season.

Well we schlepped the girls up to Billings on Friday in Poppy’s new accord. The drive was pretty nice and the girls were angels. The visit with Dr. W went well. Lela was a champ getting her EKG done and putting up with all the listening.

The basics are that she is doing great. She has an ASD and a VSD, which means that she still has a hole between the top two ventricals and the bottom two ventricals so the holes have not closed. So the plan now is to wait and see since it does not affect her in the least. It would be a minor concern if she had teeth and had to see the dentist so we can cross that bridge later. We go back in 6 months unless we notice her growth slowing down too much then we would go sooner. If the holes don’t close by the time she is 4 or so they might consider going in and closing them for her. But it won’t be open heart surgery, it would be a non invasive surgery using a cathetar (I think). Anyway, the jest of it is that there is nothing to worry about.

We took the girls by the NICU and they visited with a couple nurses before demanding to be put to sleep:) So we obliged them and headed out. All in all a good day.

We’re still here! Been a bit busy lately, but we’re all happy little clams at the Haslup house.

This Friday we’re headed back to Billings for Lela’s appointment with her heart doctor. This is just a follow-up to see what’s going on… you’ll recall that when we left she still had a couple openings between chambers in her heart. Obviously it’s nothing out of the ordinary, since we were able to go home and follow-up after two and a half months, but it should be interesting to see if anything has changed.

Yesterday while at work I got a call from home. Thanks to caller ID I knew who it was… or so I thought. The second I picked up the phone all I heard was Lela belting out her “oh my gosh I’m hungry you better feed me now” cry. I couldn’t stop laughing… I could see Lela’s exact expression in my mind as she went through the hungry-cry cycle. Hilarious. I also heard her bottle being warmed up in the background, so don’t call child services on us because we laugh at our children crying. Lela’s funny… she’ll be fine one minute, then all of a sudden get so hungry it looks like she’ll eat her hand off. I think she gets that from me.

We think Lela might be getting a touch of whatever crazy virus is apparently going around this country… Piper had a touch of it last week, so I guess it was only a matter of time before Lela was taken in. It’s interesting seeing how the girls handle it differently… Piper would let out some really weak whimpers while putting on her best cry-face (she couldn’t muster up a full cry, apparently, but her face could), while Lela will actually cry until you pick her up and then she’ll settle in and look up at you with her big gray eyes with the saddest and cutest face ever. As if she’s saying, “hold me, I feel puny.” Then she’ll rub her face, and therefore any snot that has come out her nose or is on the verge of coming out, all around your shirt until you’ve got a new stripe going across your chest. Neat.

That’s about it… we’ll post after Friday with an update.

Lela was in a smiling mood last night so I finally got some footage for a comedy! Here’s a movie.