themarcandrecifamily

I cannot believe it, but Shiloh turned TWO on October 19. On her birthday, my mom and I took Shiloh and M&M to the State Fair. It was a huge success . . . she loved it. Everything was stimulating and she was giggling from excitement almost the entire time. Her two favorite things were the petting zoo and the water fountains, Fair Park has several really neat water displays and Shiloh loved watching the water. At the petting zoo, Shiloh got to pet a zebra!!

To celebrate Shiloh's 2nd birthday, we had a wonderful party with a bounce house and lots of friends and family! For her party, I thought she would like a bounce house and SHE LOVED IT!! I was so excited by her reaction. When she saw it, she acted really surprised and ran straight to it. She then bounced in it almost the entire party. I could tell that she had a great time and that was my goal- to be surrounded by those who love her and to enjoy herself!

Another special thing happened on Saturday! McKinley smiled at us!! It was GREAT!

. . . and on Sunday McKenzie joined her smiley sister by doing it too! I was laughing and celebrating this sweet moment! Seeing my sweet babies smile at me was such a special moment- now I just have to try to capture it with the camera :)

Speaking of camera, I must say that I'm extremely impressed with Portrait Innovations! We took Shiloh's 1 year old pictures there and decided to go back for her 2 year ones! I am so happy with the pictures and very happy to share them with you!

Here she is jumping

and landing

Here are pictures from her birthday party:

Marc took today (Monday the 24) off of work for a fun family day and we went to the Dallas Zoo!! Shiloh loves animals, so we really enjoy taking her to see them! Thank you Marc, for being a wonderful Daddy and husband! I LOVE YOU!

Here are some pictures from the State Fair, her actual birthday and the zoo:

Shiloh in front of the a water fountain at the State Fair

Smiley Twins

McKenzie smiling

McKinley (she can smile bigger but I have yet to capture it)

Shiloh's Milestones (2 years):

-Her song repertoire has gotten quite extensive

-She can recognize most of our friends and their kids

-she generally speaks in simple sentences and can use adjectives to describe things, ie big one, small one, in front of, behind

-she can identify a lot of animals and colors

-she is getting better at playing independently

-she is in a Big Girl bed and doing really well in it

-she can skip and hop (and identify that is what she is doing)

M&M milestones at 6 weeks:

-they are both SMILING!! It's such an amazing feeling to have them smiling at us!

-they have actually both rolled over as well (really it's because they are so wiggly not because they are trying to, but it was still rather shocking)

-nursing has been going well! I really was hoping that it would and so far we've all gotten the hang of it!

Last I wrote, I was on strict bed rest and Shiloh had adjusted pretty well. In retrospect, I've realized that when I was put on bed rest, it affected Shiloh in so far as she stopped sleeping through the night again. Poor Marc had to get up almost every night at 4 am and sometimes at midnight too. The first night I was off of bed rest, she slept from 8 pm to 7:30 . . . unfortunately she only got one night of me being off of bed rest.
Although I was still on bed rest for Shiloh's First Day of Mother's Day Out, I am so glad I got to get her ready and go with her.

On my ONE day of no bed rest, I went to Firewheel with Shiloh, played at the train, got her a new pair of sneakers, and got her FIRST hair cut.

I was taken off of bed rest Wednesday, September 7, which was 36 weeks and full term for twins. I had my check-up on Thursday, September 8 and I honestly didn't think the twins would be coming. I told my mom not to catch an early flight home and my dad not to worry because there was nothing leading me to believe the twins were coming anytime soon.

On Thursday Sept 8, I went into the sonogram and the technician got really quiet and kept looking at the same spot for a while. She had never done this before, so I started to think something was wrong. She told me she needed to call the doctor to have her take a look. They both stared at the screen quietly and the doctor told me to go ahead to my room and she'd meet me in there. The sonogram technician told me the fluid was a little low in McKenzie's sac so the doctor would probably want to talk about it. I still wasn't sure if I'd be meeting my girls, but I really wanted to because I thought that if they were no longer thriving in utero then why keep them in there.

When Dr. Vu came in the room, she asked if I was ready to meet my girls. I was shocked and so excited!! She asked when the last thing I ate was and told me we'd have a c-section as soon as we could. She scheduled me for 8o clock Thursday night, but said if I was ready sooner then we'd begin surgery then. I met Marc at home and we said bye to Shiloh. We went to the hospital and they immediately started prepping me for surgery. I was surprised at how quickly everything went. Surgery started around 8:20 and the girls arrived at 8:40 and 8:41.

Now that I am healed and have had a chance to process it all, I think that the worst part of the C-Section was my fear of surgery; particularly my fear of the epidural. All in all, it wasn't too bad, and we are so blessed to have two healthy baby girls! The best part of the surgery (other than seeing the girls for the first time), was when they told me the NICU team was leaving and didn't think the girls needed to go there at all. I was elated! The girls got to stay with us and cuddle with their mommy and daddy much longer than I thought they would.

I cannot believe that McKenzie and McKinley are 3 WEEKS old today! Time has really flown by! Although feedings, diaper changes, swaddling, and chasing Shiloh around has consumed my time lately, I can honestly say that I am LOVING it!! The twins have already gained a pound, which is great because that means nursing is going well. I will admit that a tiny part of me was sad about their weight gain because they have already grown quite a bit. It seems like time is going so fast that I wish I could slow it down to help me savor the beauty of my family in this season of life.

I'm going to include lots of milestones with some short explanations. Here goes:

Shiloh's Milestones (23 Months):
-She is LOVING being a Big Sister; every morning she asks to see the babies right when she wakes up. She normally refers to them as Baby or as Kinsley, which is a combination of their two names

- She enjoys hugging, kissing, holding and burping her sisters

- She had a few rough days of Mother's Day Out after the twins were born. She pushed kids in her class down, but THANKFULLY the teachers think that she is getting better!!

- She can sing LOTS of songs; to name a few:
-- The Wheels on the Bus
-- The Itsy Bitsy Spider
-- The ABCs
-- Row Row Your Boat
-- Old McDonald Had a Farm
-- The Barney Song (I Love You); sweet story about this song. Shiloh asked Marc and I to sing this song to her at bedtime a few weeks ago so we did. After a few nights of us singing it to her, she turned and sang it to us, hugging and kissing us at the appropriate time in the song. The sweetness of that moment made our hearts melt.

-Her vocabulary grows leaps and bounds daily. Some things that have impressed us are
-- her ability to distinguish big and small things
-- her ability to describe location; ie behind the chair, in front of me, etc.
-- Her sentences. She usually speaks in sentences now instead of simple words and phrases.

M&Ms Milestones:
- at birth McKenzie weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces and McKinley weighed 5 pounds 5 ounces
- at their two week check up McKenzie weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and McKinley weighed 6 lbs 4 oz
- Lengths: at birth McKenzie was 18 1/2 inches and McKinley was 17 3/4 inches
-they can clasp their hands together, which according to Sami is a newborn milestone (I didn't even know that)
- so far they are sleeping really well; we've had to wake them up to feed them at night. Last night (the night before they turned 3 weeks), both girls woke up every three hours on their own. Hopefully they are just hitting a growth spurt and will continue to be good sleepers, but we will see. I'll keep you updated.

Here are some pictures!

Our Family of 5!