Mason And Ike At 16 Weeks

It's hard to believe that Mason and Ike will be 16 weeks on Sunday. It really does just seem like yesterday that I was decked out in medical scrubs in the delivery room holding two newborns who didn't even know how to open their eyes yet (I'd say that wide-eyed Mason has certainly mastered that task pretty well!). Now we have two pudgy little babies who are smiling all the time, cooing, rolling over and knocking back about 7 ounces of formula per feeding (we're still waiting for the sleeping-through-the-night part to set in). Before we know it they will be crawling and pulling up on furniture and making us keep an eye on them every waking moment. I don't know whether to look forward to these milestones or dread them...Mason and Ike are kind of fun how they are right now, but I guess Brooks and I don't have a choice.

When I realized that Mason and Ike were at the 16-week mark this weekend I started thinking about how much their appearances change on a daily basis. Whenever my parents and Brooks' parents go a few days without seeing the twins the first thing they comment on is how grown up they look since the last time they saw them. Of course, Brooks and I see them on a daily basis, so it's hard for us to comprehend this rapid transformation.

So I decided to go back through all of my photos of Mason and Ike since the birth on July 13 and got the idea to put a collage together illustrating how quickly they are growing up (see below). The first collage is of Mason (Ike's will come next) and contains 12 photos taken between the birth and this week. The photos move chronologically from left to right in each row. The first photo in the upper left corner was taken in the delivery room and the last photo on the bottom right was taken this week. Now I finally see what people have been talking about!

UPDATED: As you can see, I've added Ike's 16-week collage.

I'm Back!

I have been incredibly slack over the last five weeks. Not one blog post! And on top of that, the Dow has lost more than 2,500 points. Wow. For the few of you that still check this blog...I'm sorry, no excuses. I'll try to win your loyalty back. That being said, I'll throw out a few excuses anyway. Brooks and I have NO free time...She's back at work now...I'm out the door early in the morning and by the time I get home it's during the be-witching hour when Ike seems to have his evening meltdown...I've got to help finish a feeding and then we give the kids a bath and get them prepped for bed...Then it's time for us to prepare our dinner and chug a few glasses of wine to calm us down...Brooks gets her bath and goes to bed early...I watch a little football or baseball or whatever sports is on TV...Then I sneak into Mason and Ike's room and 'top them off' with a few ounces of formula around 10:30pm so they can hopefully sleep until 5am...I go to bed in the guest room next to their nursery and sleep with one ear open listening out for the faintest cry...About 3am I then have to get up and put a pacifier in Ike's mouth to convince him that he isn't really hungry and doesn't need to be fed yet...I repeat this process every hour for the next three hours until I wake Brooks up and 'pass the torch' so to speak.

In addition to all of these excuses, my home computer crashed a few weeks ago and I had to buy a new laptop after the hard drive couldn't be saved. Okay, enough of the excuses.

I've loaded a bunch of new photos of Mason and Ike below, but let me say they are doing great. They haven't been to the doctor in a while but they've got to be pushing 16 pounds, if not more. We'll find out next week. They are still growing at a very healthy rate and looking different every single day. They really enjoy their awake time now and are now trying to talk up a storm. Ike has become very vocal and smiles at every chance he gets...but he's just as quick to turn a laugh into a cry. Mason is the epitome of chill. She is always wide-eyed and just taking in her surroundings. She loves her sleep and only cries when she is she is hungry. It's truly amazing how different they are, but that's what my parents said about Corinna and me.

In the photos you'll see them in their Christening gowns from October 19 when they were baptized at Myers Park Presbyterian Church and also in their Halloween costumes from this past weekend, as well as some other photos. Enjoy.