The New Family

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas Day!

 Merry Christmas!

Linus explains to Chuck what Christmas means:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA

 
The gift Dad was so busy with earlier in the month is a DVD movie of footage shot while celebrating Christmas with relatives in 2011.



He compiled the footage using Power Director. It is pretty slick, fast paced, set to Christmas music (mostly, there is some speed metal too), and has lots of special effects to keep and hold audience attention. This is no boring holiday video of endless, unwanted gifts, and disappointed gift givers!



Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Gifts from Grandma

THANK you New Family Grandma!

Gingerbread boy and girl

Each stocking is personalized


The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

~ A Visit from St. Nicholas

Merry Christmas Eve

FROM the New Family to you and your family, Merry Christmas!


Tomorrow we will celebrate the Reason for the season.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Buddy Too has a Message for You.



"My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."
Hello to all my adoring fans, and even the creepy adware stalkers from Russia. I was incognito today. I didn't want to be recognized bouncing around in my sister's Exersaucer. But the paparazzi found me anyway. So I wanted to issue a press release explaining the situation and inoculating my fans from the photos that'll surely surface later. Please understand that I am full of energy and my Excersaucer doesn't bounce. So when I need to burn it off, I use hers. It is the most effective way to do it, and I am practical minded about these things. The color doesn't bother me one bit.

That should end all of those nasty TMZ rumors. It won't but it should.

Anyway, on a related topic, I am so excited to learn that Hasbro has given into PCness and released a gender neutral EZ Bake oven. I, however, will not take the steel and black one. I'll take mine in pink thank-you-very-much. And then I'll gift it to Liesel.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Update: Little Crawlers in the Making

BUGGY prefers to be put down on her tummy. Yeah, sure, they know enough to put her down on her back to help prevent SIDS. But in doing so she immediately flops over and onto her belly. Now the New Family Parents put her down on her belly.

As you can see from previous posts, she is very adept at holding herself with her arms while in this position. Recently she added her knees to the position. She got up onto her hands and knees and began to rock back and forth. It was cute.

Buddy Too is still fairly uninterested in rolling over. When put onto his tummy, there is as much of chance he'll stay there until he cries to be picked up as there is he will roll over. However, while on his tummy, if not tired and a play toy is placed out of reach, he will squirm his way toward it. I say squirm because actually getting up on hands, much less hands an knees, has not yet ocurred to him.

Buddy Too sports his Moose sleeper.
Liesel still feeds herself her bottle on many occasions. She seems to prefer it to Dad holding it for her. She, of course, knows when she wants a break or is done and can easily remove it from her mouth while Dad has to guess. She will remove and reinsert the nipple many times over during a 4.5 oz feeding. Dad is happy to let her do it even if a little sad that his services are no longer required. She has had a wide variety of solids from fruit to veg to meat. The only thing she was not super excited about was peaches (the first time she had them). Second time when mom tried she like them. Sometimes it is less to do with their taste buds and more to do with their hunger level.

Buddy still needs huggey-lovey during bottle feeding. He does well eating from the spoon and hasn't refused anything.

Update: As Dad has written before, whenever he makes a declarative statement of absolute truth about one of the Twins, they take it as a cue to prove him wrong. Today EJ decided to roll over onto his tummy. He just needed the proper motivation. Dad put Liesel in his crib with him and separated them  by about a foot. They giggled and smiled at each other. EJ swung his legs up and around to get closer to her and wound up on his belly.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Merry Christmas

"I'm Christmas cool."

"Go away paparazzi."

Nice little detail

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Merry Christmas

"I have a Christmas surprise for you! Its poop."

"Like my reindeer?"

Reindeer feet.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Big Boy

EJ is wearing a 12 month old sized sleeper. As you can see, it fits him well.

 "I'm not fat. I am solid muscle."

"No really Dad! It was this big!"

The outfit comes from the Kim H collection. Thank you Kim.

Merry Christmas

"It's getting closer. I can feel it. Any moment now."

"Really? It's not here yet?"
"Oh, I can hardly stand the anticipation."




Friday, December 14, 2012

Merry Christmas

Liesel, "It stinks around here."
EJ, "I know!"

Liesel dourly, "Seriously Bro, did you poop? You need to get out of my crib if you did."
EJ excitedly, "Oh look at that! Did you know your name is on the wall?"
Liesel in exasperation,"Its the same wall we've been seeing for the last six months!"
EJ, "E - L - I - Z - A - B - E - T - H, Elizabeth."
Liesel deadpans, "Get out of my crib."

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Merry Christmas

"I'm gettin' ready! Big day comin'."

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12:12:12 on 12/12/2012

WHERE were you on this date and time?

Bugaboo was eating. Daddy was feeding. Buddy too was napping (and still is). Mom was practicing her choir solo.

Update: Six Month Check-Up

THE New Family Twins went in for the 6 month well being visit.

The nurse measured Buddy Too's (EJ's) length first. She input it into the system. And then she said, okay, let's remeasure him. Apparently the measuring tape moved while measuring and he was off the charts. However on remeasurement, he was still in the 75th percentile at 27" inches (actually about 27 and 1/16" from Dad's perspective). For weight, however, and despite a near constant willingness to feed, he is only in the 30th percentile at 16 lb. 6 oz.

Snugaboo (Liesel) is still too skinny at 14 lb. 7 oz. She eats less and when she is full, she will simply not eat anymore. Her length is 1/2" less than his.

The doctor encouraged us to introduce even more solids into their diet, confirming Dad's thought that it is time they are eating as much solid food (if not more) than formula. And, he is excited that they will soon undergo the rite of passage with their first Cheerios.

They are both healthy and the Parents have no acute concerns, though she will be meeting with an ophthalmologist for amblyopia since it runs in Dad's side of the family.

Socially and psychologically, he needs near constant interaction via huggey-lovey and becomes very grumpy when he does not get enough. He does not like to take naps, while she is very easy to put down. She is very independent and demands very little attention.

They both sleep through the night, though they sometimes think 5:30 a.m. is a perfectly acceptable time to wake up. But after a bottle, they usually return to sleep and get up between 7:00 and 8:00.

Update: While at the visit, the doctor expressed concern that EJ had not yet rolled over on his own.  Dad was unconcerned. He knows EJ isn't going off to college without the requisite skills. Never-the-less, she coached the Parents on how to encourage him to roll over. So, Mom put him on his back when they returned home and he promptly rolled over. Twice.

EJ is, ah, umh, well, laid back (not lazy) about these sort of things. He'll get to them when he finds a good reason to. Being uncomfortable on his full tummy was reason enough.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

EJ in His Big Boy Sleeper


Buddy Too is in his big boy sleeper above, tired and about to fall asleep. Though it is for a 9 month old, it is still snug around his massive thighs.

Oh, and by the way, happy 6 months old today kids!

Liesel wants to know where her cupcake is. Not yet dear. You'll get one in another six months!

Merry Christmas



"Its my first Christmas. How do we celebrate in this family?"
Dad, "We don't."



"Say what!?"
Dad, "Just teasing Bugaboo."

Monday, December 10, 2012

Merry Christmas


"Have you heard of this Santa fella?"

"Mom n' Dad are leveraging him to bribe
good behavior from us."


"Oh no! I am sunk. What will I do now?"

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Merry Christmas

 "Hi you!" "Hi back at ya!"
 "I'm hungry." "And she's tired."
"You don't need to tell them everything. Take That."

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Merry Christmas

Naughty...

...or nice?
Adorable either way.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Why So Few New Posts?

REGULAR readers will have noticed the dearth of new posts. It is because Dad has been using his time to put together Christmas gifts for family. He cannot reveal at this time exactly what it is (wouldn't want to spoil the surprise), but here is a clue.


Savvy readers might be able to put together some clues from previous posts and guess what it is correctly. All will be revealed December 25th.

Hmmm, is Dad indulging early in Christmas spirits? Does he really not know the current year? No, he knows the current year, but the album art above is going on the cover of the contents of the gift.



Monday, December 3, 2012

Update: Cause and Effect

 WOW the New Family Dad has been busy getting gifts ready for the giving. He's been so busy he hasn't had a chance to post anything new in a while.

Buddy Too reaches for the yellow button and...
...delights with glee at the light and sound.
This is a big important moment for Buddy Too, a.k.a EJ. He was slower than his sister to learn cause and effect but he is quickly catching up. He now tests that yellow button every time he is put in the Exer-saucer.

Yep, still works Buddy, and will as long as Dad keeps the batteries fresh.

Wait until he discovers that the red apple, green pear, and orange orange light up and make noise too.

Update: He quickly discovered the other buttons a few days later. Dad was in the kitchen when he "Pear, one green pear."