Our Friend, Bonnie

Today, we visited Bonnie, my friend from school. Almost six years ago, Bonnie's daughter Caitlin was in my advisory and my Pre-Algebra class. Caitlin was adorable and I loved having her in my class. The bonus was I got her Mom in the process. Bonnie would send me monthly, sometimes weekly, emails that would raise my spirits. They were amazing emails! So amazing were they, that I created a Happy Notes folder in my email cabinent for them. Occasionally, when I had a bad day, I would open one of Bonnie's emails and feel so much better. To this day, I still have every Happy Note she ever sent me.

Today, we visited Bonnie at her office. She is a program director for the Institute for Educational Advancement. They do amazing things there for gifted students who need opportunities to reach their potential. Bonnie gets to spend her days helping these kids feel inspired and granting their wishes to attend schools they might not otherwise be able to. I'm so envious!

While I talked with Bonnie's boss, Beth, Bonnie volunteered (on Rosh Hashanah no less) to play with the babies. When I left them, they were in the lobby area of the Institute's offices. I did not hear anything while I was talking with Beth, so I wasn't worried. Beth and I came out of her office about 40 minutes or so later to find...emptiness. No babies. No Bonnie. Beth, however, noticed that Bonnie's office door was closed. So she slowly opened it. Again, no babies. Then we heard Gracie talking and behind a desk, on the floor, we found Bonnie (in her business attire) with Gracie and Luke. Gracie was picking up markers and putting them into a cup while Luke was knocking them out and spreading them all over the floor.

Bonnie did a great job with the babies! She is also brilliant and perceptive. Having only spent 40 minutes on her own with the babies, she was able to describe their personalities perfectly. She called Lukie "all boy" (yep!) and Gracie an indepenent baby with a need to organize (yep!).

Beth and Bonnie's Foundation is going to be opening a preschool in the next few years for children aged 3-7 to attend. They will do amazing things there and we plan on being two of their first students!

Bonnie, we loved visiting you and can't wait to see you again! Maybe next time, we can come play with Caitlin too!

Do Either of the Twinsies Look Like Me?

Ever since the babies were born, I've thought they both look like their father. Lucas is the spitting image of his Daddy, while Gracie looks like her Grandpa Al.

We get all kinds of comments:

"Luke looks just like you!"

"Gracie looks just like Ed!" and so on...

I can't find any baby pictures of Daddy, but here are some of me.

What's the verdict? Do either of them look like me?

Pictures for the Walk for Diabetes

This year, Daddy gets to be on a mile marker for the Amerian Diabetes Association's Walk for Diabetes. They took pictures of Daddy by himself and then they put the babies in too!

Here are some of our favorite pics.

By the way, in all fairness, I was not told I would be in pictures. I have no makeup on and I'm shiny because the room was like 100-degrees!

P.S. In case you missed it, here's another link to Daddy's page so you can sponsor him!

Post #101 - For Daddy

Every year, Daddy walks in the America's Walk for Diabetes. Having lived through the horrible things the disease can do to a person, he works hard to see that money is raised to search for a cure. When we discovered we were pregnant, he became very worried that the babies would one day develop diabetes. He worries about it every day, which makes this Walk even more critical to him.

This year, he has been a little distracted (read = twinsies) and hasn't been able to send out the mailing requests he usually does to ask for help. If you can help Daddy reach his goal, please visit his webpage on the American Diabetic Association's website. He has a huge way to go to reach his goal. I hope you can help him make it a little bit closer to his magic number.

Here is a link to the team page if you want to walk with us!

Post #100.....

Post #100 should be a happy post. Sadly, it is not. I am bleary eyed from lack of sleep.

I don't know what the babies are going through, but they keep waking up at 3 am and refusing to go back to sleep.

Something's gotta give, kiddos! Mommy needs sleep!

One Year Ago Today...

Dr. Kovak called us from the NICU and said: "The babies get to come home today!"

After 15 days in the NICU, Gracie and Luke passed their car seat tests and were allowed to come home. Little did we know that it was the end of a complete night's sleep for good!

This is a picture of Mommy and Daddy getting ready to be wheeled out of the hospital. Notice that Daddy was still in his wheelchair, too!

Remember this picture? The babies had only been home one day when Aunt Becca did her first photo shoot!

How Exciting! Wait, who are these people?!

You may have noticed the ClusterMap located on the righthand side of our blog. It keeps track of who comes to visit our site and puts a red dot on their location. At first, hardly anyone had visited. Oh, there were many visits from Los Angeles, Chicago, then from San Francisco. Then, my BBC Twin Mommas started to visit and we picked up Philidelphia, New Jersey, Modesto, and many other places.

Over the past few weeks, our ClusterMap has gone berserk! We had 3 visitors from Europe and, all of a sudden, a visitor from New Zealand! I'm pretty sure the visitor from London is our friend Alicia and the visitor from Spain was our friend Allison while she was on a trip with the girls from school. But who are all these other visitors?

Honestly, this may be because I shared our blog site with the Moms on the October 2007 Birth Board. They are all over everywhere!

At first, it seemed kind of weird. There are people all over the world who have visited our site. I never thought that this little blog might start to reach people beyond our family and friends.

How cool is that?

Birthday Parties

Being twins, it makes sense that Gracie and Luke might have more than one party. We actually had 3!

On their actual birthday, we headed to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner with Nana, Aunt Bec, Hailey, Bianca, Brandon, Auntie Ten Ten, and Nathan. The Twinsies had garlic bread and spaghetti. For their birthday surprise, they had spumoni ice cream. Gracie and Luke are fascinated by fire, but don't understand what to do about it. I blew out their candles for them.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party at a park near Aunt Bec's house. Lots of people were there, including family and friends. My friend, Julie, was there with her twin boys and our friend from the hospital, Jessica, was there with her twin boys! The Twinsies had an Elmo Cupcake Cake for this party and had lots of fun making a mess. We had a great time eating blueberries, red frosting, and dodging the balloons dancing in the wind. There was a Cookie Monster pinata too!

(Be patient while the slide show loads!)

On Sunday, we had a party at our house for the people who live closer to us. This time, we had a Cookie Monster Cupcake Cake and an Elmo pinata. (Daddy wants me to say here that he was really impressed with Sam's Club. We gave them a picture of a Cookie Monster Cupcake Cake and they did a beautiful job!) Instead of wearing their 1st birthday shirts, Gracie and Luke wore their bears onesies. Gracie even had a ginormous Bears' bow. It's a good thing they wore them, because that night, the Bears played the championship Colts and beat them. Go Bears!

We had a lovely time at both parties. It was a long weekend, but we had such a wonderful time. It was great having everyone come to spend time with the babies and see how they are growing.

One special memory to note: This weekend, Luke started taking his first real steps. He is still a little wobbly, but he can take 6 or more steps and manage to stay upright. In the next few weeks, he should be just as good at walking as Gracie is!

Happy 1st Birthday, My Little Loves!

Words cannot express the joy you have brought to our lives. Your smiles, your laughs, the silly sounds you make, each of these is a reminder of how truly blessed we are! Daddy and I are the luckiest parents in the entire world!

May this birthday be the first of decades more to come!

One year ago tonight...

I went to bed for the last time being pregnant. Little did I know that in just a few hours, I would wake up early and Dr. Hartford would say to me, "Whatcha doing tonight at about 7:30 pm?"

September 4th was a Tuesday and there was precious little on TV. Well, except baseball. Ed made me watch a Cubs game with him.

Who knew that in just 22 long short hours, Gracie and Luke would be born?

Luke-a-Loo the Walker? Maybe Stepper?

Over the past few days, Lukie has been "trying" to walk. Or maybe, it is step...

Without warning, he will stand on his own and take 5 or 6 steps toward someone or something. There is no rhyme or reason to it. No one seems to be able to convince him to walk toward them. It is an entirely random occurrence. Daddy has been desperately trying to get Lukie to walk across the room. He wants both babies to be walking by their first birthday.

I'm not sure Luke-a-Loo is interested in that. So far, he has done everything in his own time. He started crawling a month after Gracie, still says only 4 or so "words", has grown his eight teeth in spurts. I think we just have to be patient. That's the just way Luke-a-Loo rolls.

(Hopefully...walks)