I learned two things this weekend:
1. Infants do not like fireworks.
2. Other people's children get on my nerves.

We visited Round Rock/Austin this weekend, and the babies did AWESOME....they slept in every restaurant, slept great at night in their pack and play, and were quiet the whole time we held them at the baseball games. Of course, no one watched the game much, we all just played with the babies and passed them around to each other. At least we managed to look up for Nick's at bats...but that is about it!! The second night they had fireworks after the game...which I thought would be fun. Clearly, I was wrong. My mom was holding Cale during the show, and in a twenty minute period, he went from confused to alarmed to horrified to literally beside himself with terror at all the noise. We were trying to cover his ears, but he was screaming so loud and wiggling so much it was nearly impossible. We wanted to leave, but couldn't get out of our seats and out of the ballpark because it was pitch black for the fireworks and we had so much junk to carry. Meanwhile, everyone in a ten row radius is staring at me like I am a child abuser. Mercifully, the show finally ended, and we got in the car...it took another twenty minutes to calm him down. My mom is worried he will always associate her with the terror of fireworks. :) If Cale screaming in terror wasn't so sad, it would be a little funny because he makes the most hilarious faces when he is upset. It probably gets on his nerves to be mad and have everyone laughing at his faces. In between worrying about Cale and what everyone around me thought about his howling, we had to hear the kids behind us hollering after every single firework went off. At first, it was cute........they were just kids enjoying the fireworks. (at least that is what I told myself)......but after twenty or so times of hearing them yell as loud as they could every single time, I had had it...I had to turn around and give them the "former first grade teacher" look. They didn't get it but their mom did, and it was finally quiet. (Except for the crying coming from my own child, but who gets annoyed at their own kid?) They weren't nearly as bad as the kids in our hotel who pushed every button in the elevator and rode it up and down for about forty five minutes. It was a glass elevator, and every time they would get to the first floor, their dad (who was reading the paper and drinking his coffee) would look up and wave to them and off they would go again. No one in the family seemed to notice the lines of people forming at the elevators waiting for twenty minutes for them to come back down to the first floor. Being a former teacher, I always noticed kids in public who were getting on everyone else's nerves...but now I really notice!! I don't ever want my kids to be that kid! I told Shawn those are the parents who would always act so baffled in parent conferences and say their child NEVER acted like this at home....
Other than that...we had a great time! :) It rained all weekend, which meant no swimming, but we had fun anyway!
The babies are HUGE.....I can't wait to see what they weigh at their eight week checkup. I am scared my pediatrician will yell at me because they are so big...especially Cale. His eyes are starting to look like tiny slits in his face. He is hungry all the time! He would eat all the time...even if you offered him a bottle every ten minutes. When his bottle is over, he cries like his heart is broken. It is so sad! Shawn thinks he weighs 15 pounds...which sounds too big to me. There are surely some weight gain guidelines somewhere that we are shattering.
I have to keep telling Shawn that fat doesn't necessarily translate to athletic prowess later!

Finally......Some peace and quiet!!!

The babies are sleeping and fed, and we are at my mom's house where I can walk away and disappear for hours and know that someone else will come running whenever there is a peep! Yeah!! Freedom!
Today Hayden smiled for the very first time!!! They have both been "half smiling" at us all week, which sort of looks like pain or gas. Today though, she actually looked happy while doing it! I told everyone "I think she's smiling!!!" and when they came running, she actually repeated it so that I didn't look like a liar! :) It is nice to see her so happy today, since yesterday we were watching her like a hawk, waiting for her to projectile vomit! Twice, she spit up her whole bottle, and the "ask-a-nurse" people said if she did it a third time, to take her to the emergency room. Lucky for us, she was fine. I called her "Linda Blair" all day which Shawn didn't think was funny.
Cale is starting to watch us more and pay attention to everything around him. Hayden was alert from the minute she was born, but he wasn't so interested. Today he was grumpy and Shawn walked around outside with him; he was so captivated by the trees and the sounds outside...it was so cute! It is exciting to watch them turn into little people with separate likes and dislikes... they are really so different in their temperments.
I took the babies out to lunch this week to meet two of my sweet friends from school...it was the first time I took them out by myself. I was tired by the time I got to the restaurant!! Luckily, they were pretty quiet the whole time, and my friends jumped right in helping to feed and hold them. It is so nice to have friends that don't wait to be asked to help, they just grab a baby and get to work! :) My friend from Houston, AnnMarie, was here this week with her family, so we stopped by her mom's house after lunch to visit....it was so fun with a house and pool full of kids...we had a seven year old, a six year old, a five year old, two four year olds, a two and a half year old, a one year old, a ten month old, a four month old, and my two one month old babies....it was busy, but so much fun! It is funny to think that not that many years ago, there were a lot fewer people hanging around that pool in the summers!!! It made me think about what the babies will be like at those different ages...we have so much to look forward to.
We enjoyed our first father's day...I can't imagine a better daddy for my children! We talk all the time about how lucky we are, and how these babies are the best thing to ever happen to us...we can't wait for what's to come in the next few weeks! The babies don't know yet how lucky they are to have such an amazing daddy!!
Next week we are going to make our first out of town trip to watch our cousin Nick play baseball! His team, the Memphis Redbirds, are playing in Round Rock and we are hoping we can manage to watch the game with two tiny babies...luckily the games are at night, so I don't have to worry about sun or heat on the babies. We normally sit with the families of the team when we watch him play, but this time we are sitting behind home plate... I didn't want to spend the whole game worrying about something flying off the field at us...I am pretty sure I couldn't even protect myself in the event that something came flying at me, much less another human being. :) We are looking forward to visiting some of our favorite spots in one of our favorite cities....we are planning to swim in Zilker Park at Barton Springs (although Shawn will probably be the only one doing the swimming....I am not exactly swim suit ready yet!) and to eat at PLUCKER'S...the best hot wings on the planet! We are hoping to visit the Co-Op on campus, and load up on some Horns stuff for the babies.....making them UT fans before they have a chance to choose for themselves!! Hopefully we have a successful trip....going places before the babies are mobile and harder to transport! We keep being advised by other parents of multiples to go places NOW before it gets difficult. We are definitely listening to their advice....

One month old!!

The babies are five weeks old tomorrow, and are changing every day. They are starting to smile in their sleep (the baby books say that this comes first...we still have to wait for them to actually smile "at" us!) I am ready for some smiles and coos....I was joking that I need some return on my investment! They are a lot of work, and I would like to know that they like me. (or at least recognize me)
They are both holding their heads up pretty well, but right when we holler at someone to look at how big they are, they fling themselves to one side or the other and we have to catch them. :)
They are starting to spend some time on their tummies, mainly because the baby books told me they were supposed to, but also because I don't want them to get a big flat spot on the back of their heads....both babies are starting to really focus on us, and track things with their eyes. They seem to recognize our voices...I am sure they have figured out when they are about to be fed! Of course, we think they are beautiful and geniuses....sometimes I get teary eyed just looking at them...I can't hardly stand to watch diaper commercials or baby food commercials, and I am almost comatose every time the Johnson and Johnson commercial comes on where the lady is giving her baby a bath in the sink. I am sure a lot of that has to do with hormones, but we are nonetheless filled with gratitude every day! I am grateful for lots of things: two healthy babies who are relatively easy and who only get up once at night to eat, my mother that comes over every day to help out, and a husband who thinks it is just as much his job as mine to look after these babies!
Their little personalities are starting to come out....Hayden is mouthy and loves to sleep (just like her mommy!) and Cale looks just like Shawn, and is so sweet. He loves to look at the ceiling fan too, just like Daddy! :) We have turned into those idiots that stare at their babies for hours on end, excited about big burps and half smiles...
Both babies look more like Daddy than Mommy, although family and friends try in vain to pacify me with halfhearted attempts at comments like, "She looks just like you!" I think I deserve for at least one of them to resemble me, seeing as I am the one who experienced a tiny bit of discomfort carrying them. Apparently, that is just not how genetics works....I guess I will have to settle for being the vessel that carried them....although I think I should get some kind of award for that at least! :)
It has been a busy month, as we have learned to operate on interrupted sleep, and schedule our days around the needs of two other people. The days of doing what we want when we want are OVER! I wouldn't go back to how things were before, though... I can't remember what I did with myself before they were here.
I have learned that being the mother of twins means lots of stares and comments from strangers everywhere we go....people are mostly very nice; talking about how beautiful they are and how lucky I am...but every once in a while we encounter the occasional bold stranger that wants to know how they were conceived, or asks the peculiar question "Are they identical or fraternal?" (after they have realized they are a boy and a girl) More often than not, people make comments about how I must have my hands full. They are more right than they know...my hands are full, my car is full, my house is full, but mostly-my heart is full!!!