8 Months Old!!

Seriously? How has it been 8 months since the babies were born? It feels like yesterday that Jeff and I spent our first night home alone with Jozlynn and got the call at noon the following day saying Jeffy was officially discharged. And what did I do on their 8 month 'birthday'? I adjusted their car seat straps to the *final* position. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. When they were born they barely fit in their car seats. We had to put rolled up washcloths under their butts to make them fit, and even then the straps were about an inch above their shoulders!! They are still in their infant seats currently, which can be used until they are 32 inches tall or 32lbs. Once they outgrow these they will be in convertible car seats, potentially forward-facing (I am still debating whether or not to turn them forward-facing at a year old, I may wait until they are 2). Time is flying so fast, and it is strange to think that they will be a year old in only 4 months! I've already reserved the place where we're hosting their party, which seems completely insane to me!!

Here are some pics I took this morning:

I always love when they hold hands!

For some reason, neither baby wanted to smile for me today. This was the only smile I got and it absolutely cracks me up. Jeffy is such a ham!!

We're in the process of trying to sell our home. We've had it listed since the end of September. From the middle of January until now we've had 3 realtors do walk-throughs with their clients. Last Friday, the 3rd client actually made an offer, which we countered but eventually accepted his final offer. He (the client) was hesitant to sign the purchase agreement right away since his realtor was going on vacation the very next day. Knowing his *slight* hesitation, (and despite the fact that the realtor said the purchase agreement would be presented once he returned/we had a verbal agreement, etc) I just saw red flags all over. 3 days later the realtor - supposedly on vacation - called to tell us his client was backing out. Although he had been pre-approved for a mortgage, he wanted to keep his monthly payment below $x and couldn't do it with the price we had settled on. Seriously? You didn't know how much your monthly payment would be with that offer? You've got to be kidding me. In the 4 days Jeff and I had been looking into new homes, we had been pre-approved for a mortgage and knew - down to the very last penny - exactly how much a monthly payment would be at any given amount. And the realtor claimed his client had been looking "for a long time", not that that matters all that much but you'd think he would know what he was getting himself into?? Wow, just...wow. Obviously we've been through a variety of emotions in the past week, excited, nervous, apprehensive, slightly worried to downright upset. Why do people do this? We had even started contacting realtors about viewing their listings but had to turn right back around and say, well we were interested in the property but our buyer has backed out. I'm still upset. Whatever... if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. I'm sure someone will eventually come along with a legit offer, and maybe there will be more options available for us when we are finally able to start seriously looking.

In other semi-exciting news, Jeff's sister has 'hooked us up' with a deal on one of the vehicles at the dealership she works for in New Mexico. We're about 3 weeks away from trading in his 2010 GMC Terrain for a 2008 Saturn Outlook. Her dealership is willing to give us $3k more on a trade-in than what Jeff currently owes on the Terrain and he'll be saving approximately $120/month by buying the Outlook. A bigger vehicle for less $? How can we say no? It's still practically brand new too, with only 34,000 miles. I am excited about it, but also worried about the fact that they have to meet halfway and will essentially be 'road-tripping' approximately 800 miles to do the switch all by themselves. What can I say, I'm a natural worry-wart.

Well I best be going. The babies are up from their naps!

Pink Eye

I woke up Sunday, February 6 to the strangest sensation. My eyes felt like they were glued shut! This was around 3am, so I jumped out of bed to see what on earth was in/on my eyes. Aside from them being crusty and (very) goobery, once I finally got them pried open to see out of them I realized they were bright red!! I sauntered back to bed, and tried going back to sleep without waking Jeff. I slept very fitfully and woke again about 2 hours later, same story. This time I woke him, telling him something was wrong with my eyes, and asked him to take a look too. He turned the light on and confirmed: "Yeah, they look pretty red." Then turned the light off and went back to bed. The babies woke around 8:30 and I had Jeff feed them because I wasn't sure what was happening with me. My eyes were beginning to itch and burn pretty badly so I told him I thought I'd go to Urgent Care. I'd never had pink eye before, but was almost certain that was what I had. The nurse that took my stats asked, "Have you ever had pink eye?" before the doctor even came in to diagnose me. Yeah, it was that bad. I looked like... a zombie. I was going to post a picture but it's scary. LOL. Anyway, the doctor tells me I have the highly contagious bacterial kind. Well isn't THAT just wonderful. As I'm driving home I'm praying that nobody else in the family gets it, because whatever I'd been exposed to...you can bet the babies have been exposed to as well. I had taken them to the pediatrician the Monday before for their follow-up flu shot. Honestly, that was probably the only place we'd even gone that week so it only made sense that that was where I contracted it...

Jeff's sister was in town visiting and we were supposed to go over to his grandparents' house that afternoon for lunch and to visit some more. We decided it would be best for me to stay home, and I'd try and rest while he took the babies. He called me on his way home, "Jeffy has some goobery drainage in his right eye.." Oh boy. The babies went down for naps shortly after they got home and when Jeffy woke up crying hysterically I was almost afraid of going in there for fear of what I'd find. Sure enough, his eye was all crusted shut and he was pulling at it. 12 hours later, Jeff took him to the same Urgent Care center I'd gone to and Jeffy was diagnosed as well. His eyes never got to the stage mine were at (they never got pink!) so I think we caught it in time.

It's now 2.5 weeks later (Can you believe I started writing this post last week? So much for my once-a-week challenge!!!) and both Jeffy and I are completely healed. Thank goodness! I'm going to post this now and start on my next topic: the babies are 8 months old today!

7 Months Old!! (& Once a Week Challenge)

I am a terrible blogger. When was the last time I updated this? Over a month ago! So many things have happened in the past month but for one reason or another I just never find the time to jump on here and post something. I guess I spend too much time dinking around on Facebook, etc. Oh well...

Happy 7 months Jozlynn and Jeffrey! I honestly cannot believe how big they're getting! Here is their "7 Month" photo:

Updates! Both babies have 2 teeth now. Yep. They're turning into little children right before our eyes! Jeffrey started teething something fierce right after New Years, and on January 6 his first tooth popped through! A mere 2 days later and his second one was already in as well. Man, that was FAST! He was terribly crabby and fussy in the few days leading up to his tooth cutting: Waking in the middle of the night screaming, grabbing at his mouth, etc. Baby Orajel was constantly on hand and a couple nights we gave him Motrin just so he'd sleep OK. It was so sad to see him in that much pain!! I told my mom about it and she said when I was a baby she never even knew I was teething, she just looked in my mouth one day and there were some teeth! So, a week later (January 15) I peeked in Jozlynn's mouth and wouldn't you know - one tooth was already in and the second one was just popping through as well! She didn't act any differently (although, like most babies she has been drooly since she was 2 months old). Like mother like daughter I guess!

Jeffy, who had been fussing a little bit prior to this photo, 

is seen here modeling his new "chompers", and so is Daddy!



In "milestone news", both babies have been sitting up unassisted fairly regularly. They love to be on their bellies and will wiggle to get something but haven't mastered full crawling yet. If they want to wait until their first birthday before becoming completely 'mobile', that is perfectly fine with me!

Such a big boy!

In sleep news, we are completely done with overnight bottles. Part of this was probably related to the fact that they were sharing a room and when Jozlynn would wake up at say...4am, Jeffrey would wake up too and then I'd just give in and feed them knowing they'd inevitably go right back to sleep. (Going back and forth between cribs and replacing pacis for over an hour was just NOT cutting it...) Anyway, we have them in separate rooms now. Jeffy slept all the way through the night the first night, 9pm to 9am - just as I envisioned he would. Jozlynn woke at 4:30am and I let her cry for 3 minutes, gave her a paci, that worked for a few minutes, then I waited 5 minutes, gave her a paci, which worked for another few minutes then waited 10 minutes, gave her a paci and she FELL BACK ASLEEP until 9am! ::Hallelujah:: Believe it or not (I definitely couldn't), that was ALL it took to get her to sleep through the night. Just one night, crying a little bit - without her brother joining her in an echoing chorus to prevent her from falling back asleep. She has been sleeping through the night ever since. At first I was hesitant to split them up because all I could think was how convenient it was to go back and forth between cribs when settling them down for naps, replacing pacis, etc. but the truth is, they woke each other up all the time!! Looking back, I'm kicking myself for not agreeing to do it sooner (like, when they were 3 months old!)

Solid feedings are in full swing, and we have been giving the babies little tastes of what we're eating as well. It's always fun to see their reactions to something new. Jeff and I recently purchased highchairs for the babies, here they are modeling their new 'gear':

I love this picture, doesn't Jeffrey look so proud? "I'm a big kid!"

Well, I think I'm fresh out of things to 'blog' about so I'll end here. In the title of my post I said, "Once a Week Challenge!" I am challenging myself to do a little update every week. I'm afraid I might not have a whole lot to post about weekly so if anyone has any questions or suggestions for post topics, I'm all ears!