Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Where has the time gone?

The babies turned six months old last Wednesday and if I am honest, their half-birthday hit me pretty hard.  In fact, the night may or may not have ended in a few nostalgic tears.  It is already getting hard to remember those first few weeks with the babies and there are times where I wish I could just stop time in its tracks and preserve Ashton and Mary Seegars's sweetness and innocence.  But, since I do not have a magic clock that allows me to stop time, I guess the best I can do is record what the babies are doing now, six months after they came into our lives and changed our world in the most wonderful of ways.

Ashton: Ashton is one big boy (weighing in at 18.4 pounds when I took him to the doctor for his sinus infection).  He is extremely alert and is curious about just about everything.  He loves to play, particularly in his exersaucer and johnny jumper.  His favorite toy is the turtle attached to his exersaucer that he can pull to hear a variety of songs and sounds.  Ashton has great command of his hands and can grab anything big or small.  He gets bored very easily and is pretty demanding these days.  He has become quite the mama's boy lately and even reaches for me to pick him up (something I must admit I really love).  The boy loves to eat. Sweet potatoes are his favorite but he also likes oatmeal and applesauce, avocado and bananas.  He is not a fan of carrots or green beans, so I have to be pretty sneaky to make sure his diet has some variety in it.  At night, Ashton is all over his crib.  He will only sleep on his stomach and sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night just to babble. My favorite part of the day is when I go to get him in the morning and he smiles from ear to ear when he sees Gash and me.  Ashton loves his sister and gets so excited when he sees her, often squealing like a pig.  He laughs but only occasionally, although he smiles all the time and his smile is to die for (it literally lights up his entire face).  To wrap it up, Ashton is all boy, and I would not change one single thing about him!

Mary Seegars: We call Mary Seegars our little peanut and I can not think of a better name for miss priss.  In fact, I think she may even believe her name is peanut as she responds to it quite regularly.  At first glance, Mary Seegars appears to be half the size of Ashton, although she is starting to fatten up a little.  Mary Seegars also loves to play although she is much more patient than her brother and not quite as into everything.  She loves the exersaucer but does not have as much command over her hands, so when she wants something she usually flails her arms around sporadically until she finally gets a hold of whatever she is reaching for. She also loves books and magazines and gets excited over the colors and pictures.  Mary Seegars loves to play with both Gash and me but when she wants her alone time she lets us know.  In fact, she rarely cries unless she is hungry or tired.  While Ashton likes to be rocked to sleep, Mary Seegars prefers to be left alone.  She goes right to sleep and does not hardly move until we come into the room the next morning.  In fact, we often have to wake her up.  She may be a little sleepy head, but she always wakes up with a smile and patiently waits her turn to be picked up.  Mary Seegars was not a big fan of solids when we first introduced them to her.  Instead of eating, she would usually spit them back at us.  That is until we introduced carrots.  The girl loves her some carrots and has become as good of an eater as her brother (albeit a lot less messy).  Mary Seegars gets extremely excited when she sees Ashton and she will do everything she can to get his attention.  She is probably her most vocal when she is around her brother, yelling out and smiling at him.  Peanut smiles like it is her job and she has the sweetest smile you have ever seen. She also loves to laugh and laughs her most when she is in just her diaper.  Her feet are ticklish and her laughter is something I could listen to all day, every day.  Now, if Ashton is all boy, Mary Seegars is the quintessential girl.  She is so dainty, delicate, and as sweet as pie!

How did we get so lucky to be blessed with two totally different but totally perfect little babies?








Typical Ashton and Typical Mary Seegars . . . 



Ashton loves his Bammie!


The babies met Aunt Greer!!


Gash took me out to dinner for my birthday.  
Date nights are few and far between these days so we enjoy every second of them! 


I am one lucky girl!

Six month stats: 
Ashton: 19 pounds 10 ounces (75th percentile), 27.25 inches long (52nd percentile), with a 17.5 inch head circumference (66th percentile).

Mary Seegars: 14 pounds 10 ounces (12th percentile), 25.8 inches long (23rd percentile), with a 17.25 inch head circumference (78th percentile).

**These were actually taken closer to their seven month birthday due to fevers and having to reschedule doctor appointments. 

Monday, February 18, 2013

Caught Red Handed

Nowadays, Ashton and Mary Seegars are two active little babies (to say the least).  They love to play, read books, sing songs and eat each other.  Yes, eat each other.  When we let them play with one another, it usually involves them reaching for one another and putting whatever body part they can get their hands on in their mouth.  Ashton even narrates his attempts to eat his sister with a loud "ahhhhh".  Luckily, they both seem to find it pretty funny and their adventures have only resulted in tears on a few rare occasions. This alertness and eagerness to play is so much fun and so, so, so tiring.  A few months ago, when I would get home from school, I would snuggle the babies on the couch and maybe watch a little TV.  Now, snuggling is no longer on their list of "fun with mama" activities and watching TV is an ancient past time for me.  Neither baby is interested in snuggling anymore which I must admit breaks my heart.  So now, when I get home from school, it is play, defrost solids, feed solids (they are now eating sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, avocado, applesauce and oatmeal), play, bathe, make bottles, feed bottles, and down for bed. After running that "marathon", I fix our dinner and we enjoy it before cleaning bottles and preparing bottles for Hiam's and then literally falling into bed ourselves. However, there are nights when before I go to bed, I sneak back into the babies nursery and rock them both as they sleep on my chest.  This was my little secret until I was caught red handed last week.  Gash, discovered me rocking Ashton late one night and after laughing at my attempts to explain why I would risk waking the babies up, he has joined me in the late night snuggles.  And I must say thank goodness for those late night snuggles because I know that they too will come to an end one day.

Play, Play, Play . . . 





Sweet baby faces . . . 



Funny baby faces . . . 
(Mary Seegars's hair did this on its own, we could not stop laughing, 
especially when she started making these faces!)


Look at that chunk. . . Preemie no more! 


The babies first snow in Greenville! 


Thursday, February 14, 2013

My funny Valentines

Valentines day is all about love, and while Hallmark, Shoebox, and other card companies try to capture our feelings of love for one another in cute sayings on a card, there is no card company that can put into words what I feel for these two.  I don't even have the words to express just how full my heart is this Valentines day, so I will just have to settle for those three overused words "I" and "love" and "you". At least until I can find a word that incorporates all the joy, emotion, and well love that I feel for my babies!

I mean who couldn't love these two????




Giving Brudah kisses (well, sort of)






Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Good friends

There are not many things better than good friends.  The ones who know you inside and out.  The ones who love you despite all your flaws.  This past weekend, we got to spend some quality time with some of our best friends.  We had a great time laughing, eating, and watching our babies interact, and with a four-year-old,  a three-year-old,  a one-year-old, and two five and a half month old babies things were pretty entertaining! I can only pray that Ashton and Mary Seegars are blessed with as good of friends as we have because it sure does make life a lot more fun!

Good Times with Good Friends




Me and my little bunny rabbit . . .
 
 
Ashton and Mary Seegars were enthralled by Dakin. . . . Ethan, not so much!


Our attempt at getting all the kids together in a picture.  Nailed it!




Playtime. . .


The babies seemed to enjoy themselves. . .



A little too much!


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Charleston

For seven years, Gash and I called Charleston home. It is where we started dating, where we fell in love, where we got engaged, and where we started our life together as a married couple. Needless to say, Charleston holds a special place in our hearts. This weekend, we took the babies to Charleston for their first official visit. It was great to introduce Ashton and Mary Seegars to the city we love and some of the places that marked our past. I am pretty sure they fell in love with that ocean air, just like their mama did so many years ago, and I know that the memories made this weekend were the first of many we will make in the Holy City.

On the way to Charleston . . .


Hanging out at Pearlz, one of mommy and daddy's favorite spots!



Aunt Ali came to play!!!


Aunt Jamie did too!!


Playing with my Kimmy


Hanging out on the dock with mom and dad . . . 


 
Twin snuggles . .


Twins snacks. . .


Sweet peanut girl . .



Mama loves playing dress up with her little girl!!


Can't get enough of this little man!



After a jog with mom and dad. . . mama did not look much better!


On January 24th, we had oatmeal cereal for the first time.

Ashton gobbled it down . . . 


Mary Seegars, on the other hand, was not so sure!