Math Mommy Musings

Four Little Monkeys

2012-02-15T20:02:00.000-06:00

If I had to pick one, I think #5 is my favorite.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

2012-01-31T23:55:00.002-06:00

We had a great time Sunday at the local Lunar New Year celebration with Grandma and Aunt Shirley. Had no idea what to expect, but it exceeded our wildest expectations. The kids had a great time, and the weather was perfect. We watched the dragon dancers outside, then had lunch at our favorite restaurant.

Then the dragon dancers came INTO the restaurant while we were eating!

The drummers were right by our table, but the babies didn't mind the commotion at all.

After lunch, we wandered around the booths outside, and Amelia got her face painted.

If that's not enough photos for you, click through for more in an online Picasa album.

Christmas 2011-ish

2012-01-30T12:04:00.001-06:00

I was up late last night working on a post about our Chinese New Year adventures yesterday... which I didn't finish uploading the photos for. And in my list of posts, I stumbled upon this one still in draft mode from January 4. I guess I should post Christmas before New Years, huh?

(Noah is still slowly eating the candy off his gingerbread house. I told him that when January is over, it is going away for good!)

(Yes, we were roller skating on Christmas Day. Turns out that an empty skating rink is a FABULOUS place to host a big family's Christmas festivities. We're so thankful to have been invited to share a friend's celebration. And Amelia was absolutely determined and thrilled to skate... and skate... and skate. Turns out it's pretty hard to spot a 2-yr old, even without skates on your own feet!)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T22:26:00.007-06:00

It is Wednesday, isn't it? How convenient, I don't have to think of any clever captions or excuses for posting these recent photos.

For those of you who like quizzing yourself on who's who (you know who you are), the comments, linked below, have the answers.

Catching up

2011-11-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

Jacob is catching up! We had a "well" visit today, complete with weight check. Josh is 18 lbs 15 oz, and Jacob is 18 lbs 6 oz, the first time they've been within a pound of each other. Both were 27", and everything fell in the 50-75th percentile. I had to put "well" visit in quotes because we seemed to have more assorted maladies today than at a typical sick visit. Nothing serious, thankfully, just random rashes and a lot of snot. Ear infection falls in the "snot" category, I think...

At the risk of sounding like an exam problem from my Math for Liberal Arts class, the twins' weight difference at birth was a 15% relative difference -- extremely noticeable. Even though they're still more than half a pound apart, the relative difference now is only 3%!

Six Months

2011-11-03T15:41:00.001-05:00

Happy Half-Birthday to these little guys, who aren't nearly so little anymore!

(six months, coincidentally to the minute...)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:53:00.000-05:00

We were an Angry Birds family this year, much to Noah's delight.

Mia absolutely could not settle on which hat she wanted to wear. I'm not sure how we talked her into "her" hat for photos, but part of the deal was that she could wear the piggy hat for trick-or-treating. Last week she was all about the blue bird. Did we mention she's two? Very much so, lately.

While we were all dressed up, I snapped Joshua and Jacob's 6-month bear photo. Halfway through the shoot, I realized that I had the boys backwards -- the 1w, 2w, 3w, 4w, 2m, 3m, 4m, and 5m photos all have Jacob on the left because that's how I happened to place them the first time. Oops!

On Thursday we had a practice run in our costumes for Boo-da Fest, a fun little small-town Halloween festival.

What they're teaching in schools these days.

2011-10-06T08:06:00.002-05:00

At the big kids' school this week, they're learning about our solar system. In the car on the way home, Noah was talking about the planets, "the hottest one, then the coldest one, then the one where we live." I was curious if he knew any of their names, so I started asking questions. Our planet? Earth, check! Biggest? Jupiter, check! Smallest? (wait, do I still know the answer to this question?!), Pluto. Umm... Pluto? "Pluto. Some people say it's a planet and some people say it's not." Oh right, that Pluto. I guess we're still in a transition phase while all the kids' books get re-written. :)

If you're a part of the elementary school crowd these days, I'm dying to know what my very educated mother just served us these days. Anyone??

I wanna hold your ha-a-a-a-and.

2011-10-05T21:52:00.001-05:00

They've been holding hands every chance they get this evening. So cute!

Joshua is in the foreground of this shot. (If they weren't sitting in my lap right this second wearing the same outfits as when this was taken not more than an hour ago, I would have guessed totally wrong on this one.)

Mom and Susan, you had me second guessing the beanbag photo below too, so much so that I went back to the original photo and zoomed until I could see Josh's stray hairs. See? ;)

Last Week

2011-10-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Noah loves getting down on the floor with his baby brothers.

Joshua has started sucking his thumb, which has quickly turned into one of my "tells" when I need to quickly figure out who's who.

Both Joshua and Jacob have been enjoying their exersaucer time lately. Grandma said they were really laughing at each other and interacting, right up until she found the camera (of course!) to take this photo.

Just chilling at Aunt Susan's house. (Better label this one before I can't tell them apart. I had to look hard, but I'm pretty sure that's Jacob on the left.)

Five Months

2011-10-04T20:39:00.004-05:00

Mr. Bear has lost his nose. Last month I was able to track it down and balance it in place, but today it was nowhere to be found. Photoshop, anyone?

Only one more month to go until I've managed to pull off as many milestone bear photos with these babies as I did for the older two. I'm sure I just jinxed myself by saying that out loud... who wants to send me a reminder next month around November 2 or so? :)

My sister and fellow twin mom tells me I should be taking solo photos of each one all along also, so they have an identity for their baby books (or something like that). I'm sure she's right, but so far, it's not happening. Please boys, don't hate your mama when you realize all your solo photos are awkwardly cropped and conspicuously lopsided:

In all seriousness, five months is a lot of fun. Joshua and Jacob are really smiling, laughing, and interacting not only with us, but (to their great delight) with Noah and Amelia as well... and occasionally even with each other! They're starting to roll and scoot, grab at toys, and kick their little legs with quite a bit of oomph. As much jumping as they do in our laps, I think they'd really love the jumperoo we have stashed in the attic, but with the crib, 2 swings, 2 exersaucers, bouncer, activity mat and bumbo already in the living room, there's just no room!

I can't resist...

2011-09-11T20:35:00.000-05:00

... taking photos of these smiles. :)

Jacob is all about blowing raspberries this weekend, and was giving me some great big belly laughs just before this shot. Joshua loves to interrupt his dinner -- bottle or breast -- to smile up at you and carry on a gurgly conversation.

Four at Play

2011-09-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

Noah the Photographer

2011-09-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Do you ever wonder how a 4-yr-old views the world? Noah has been using the camera on my phone for a while now, but this was the first time he got to play with the snap-n-shoot. I wasn't following him around the house, so it was quite interesting to later look through his photo tour. No cropping or editing from mom, these are his own composition...

The closest thing at hand to practice clicking the shutter button, Joshua's head:

Maybe I should get Mia and giraffy in the photo too:

Oh, if I back up far enough I can get everyone in the frame!

My favorite chair (yes, I fight Mia for the polka-dotted one. Since I'm the big brother, sometimes I can convince her to sit in the blue checkered one. She's catching on though...)

Mia's favorite toy drum:

Still Life: Toy Edition

My fishy pillow:

Beloved Toad, fast asleep:

Tummy Time

2011-09-09T08:00:00.003-05:00

They look a little bit alike, no?

(Jacob's on the left, as in the previous several photos)

Four Months

2011-09-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

If 3 was the hand-eating month, let 4 go on record as the month for ear-to-ear grins. Such fun!! To me, they're looking more and more alike every day. If it weren't for Joshua's few leftover long locks (that never fell out), I'd really have to stop and think hard about who's who.
The little guys had their 4-month well visit this morning. Jacob has caught up with Joshua on length (25", 50th percentile) and head size (17", 72nd percentile) and is gaining ground on their weight difference. Joshua is 17lbs 5oz (88%) and Jacob is 16lbs 4 oz (75%). Both handled their shots like the little troopers that they are, and now mommy is enjoying a rare day at home with two babies. Think I can get them both down at the same time and sneak in a nap? I'm not going to hold my breath... The sleeping one just yelled out. Time to go!

Check out that vertical

2011-09-07T09:46:00.001-05:00

Pure Glee.

Here, let me zoom that in for you.

Duck, Duck, Goose

2011-09-06T19:41:00.000-05:00

Noah learned Duck, Duck, Goose at school and eagerly awaited his cousins' visit so they could play with him. The 10 to 14 year-olds are so sweet to humor their little cousin!

Smiles x 2!

2011-08-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

It's pretty easy to tease a smile out of these happy boys lately, so finally I got some double smiley photos! Can you tell who's who?

First Week of "School"

2011-08-27T16:26:00.000-05:00

Noah and Mia started school this week (preschool, daycare, whatever you want to call it). They are both loving the playtime and being around kids their own age. If you ask Noah what his favorite part is, every day he'll tell you "naptime!" The first day he didn't sleep during naptime, and he woke up Tuesday morning still exhausted. It was a struggle (haha, at the time it felt more like WWIII) trying to get him out of pajamas, but by the time we were ready to walk out the door --later than planned, of course-- he was fine. Guess what day 3 was??? Pajama day! We all laughed at the irony of that one. Days 2-5 he took a good long, much-needed nap, thank goodness. We celebrated the first day, and later the first week, with a trip to Baskin Robbins, where Noah pointed out the have 32 flavors, not 31. Gotta love it.

Joshua and Jacob have spent this week with the home daycare provider that has watched the big two since Noah was 8 months old. Thankfully, it was not their first week also; they've been visiting her a few days a week for the past month or so. That's going well, by every measure I've got: Ms. D enjoys having them, they're no more or less fussy on post-daycare evenings/nights, and they're drinking their milk just fine.

My own classes don't start till tomorrow, but I'll be optimistic and say we might be able to pull this off.

Mom & Babies

2011-08-14T21:21:00.000-05:00

I don't know that I've had a photo with these two since we left the hospital. Thanks, Mom/Grandma, for thinking to snap this one.

HEBuddy

2011-08-14T13:20:00.003-05:00

Gotta say, HEB is pretty brilliant for all the marketing they do to kids. Mine beg to go to the grocery store!

3 months

2011-08-08T13:26:00.005-05:00

Three months.

Henceforth known as the hand-eating stage.

Joshua smiling.

Jacob smiling.

(only 58 shots in this shoot...)

Out of 73

2011-08-06T18:17:00.000-05:00

Joshua and Jacob are smiling a lot lately, but I have little photographic evidence of it. Out of 73 photos, I managed to get one of each smiling, just not together.
Joshua's smile:

Jacob's smile:

A compromise shot...

This one is for Aunt Susan, last week in their Double Trouble outfits:

Matchy-Matchy

2011-07-11T11:08:00.001-05:00

I think this might be the first time they've been in the same outfit at the same time! (If my memory can be trusted, which it can't.)