Twins Dancing with their Beanie-Babies April 2003

We spent our first Easter at home, just having a quiet day together.  I have photos that were taken to celebrate our first Easter on the Easter 2003 page.  The babies look so small in their little onesies, bunny ears and tails, but tolerated being dressed up fairly well.

In mid-May the babies were introduced to the village of friends and family who had the opportunity to stop by to say hi.  It was a nice open house, and I wish that I could have spent more time with each person individually - but we all had a great day.

We spent a lot of time getting to know each other, but stayed close to home with the exception of the standard doctor's visits.

Kenan's eyes are doing well, so his next eye appointment to check his vision and focusing power will be in October.  Kira, however, is still having issues with her hemangioma which is keeping her eyelid from opening properly, and we have to continue to check her eye to make sure that the eyelid does not cause her to go blind in that eye.  So far - so good, but caution is always necessary.  If we need to, they may have to give her a steroid shot in the lid to shrink the hemangioma, but we are trying to prevent that due to the other side effects that can happen with steroids.

The first week in June, we went back to visit the doctors at the NICU, and had the great opportunity to see two of our favorite doctors at the same time!  The babies still know who took such great care of them during their stay - and hopefully we'll go back to visit again sometime soon so that the doctors and everyone else can see the progress the twins have made.

We finally had our appointment with Easter Seals - the organization that will evaluate the babies to check on their developmental status.  So far, we have been approved to receive personal visits for at least 3 hours per week for the next year - and will probably continue until school age with additional programs.  The best part is that they provided me with a detailed list of things that the babies should do by adjusted ages for each of the six categories: Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills, Social Skills, Cognitive Skill, Self-Help, and Language.   At the first visit, we only had a chance to determine that Kira is doing things that a 5 month old baby would be doing - and she is only considered to be a 3 month old (adjusted age is used to determine how the skills are evaluated for preemies).    We'll have a chance to track Kenan's progress at the next visit.

We spent a quiet independence day at home - and being grateful for the blessing that allowed us to be here and having so much fun.

Saturday July 12th, the babies got to visit the Arizona Science Center for the first time.  I truly expected them to just hang out in the stroller, but they both were much more interested in their surrounding then I ever expected.  The pinwheels twirling in front of a fan was a favorite of Kira's, and I think that Kenan enjoyed listening to the music of STOMP - a movie about roles of culture in rhythm and music. 

He took his time gaining weight, so it was a week before he was released, with the need to have oxygen again.  The oxygen is to help him grow and gain weight, and to also allow his lungs time to recoup and gain more strength while not having to work so hard.

Kira and I really missed him while he was in the hospital.  I was amazed at how much of a hole was left, even with the fact that Kira and I spent most of the nights with him, and I spent my days at work.

But, finally we did make our first road trip to Thatcher a reality.  It was two weeks later than planned, but it was a wonderful weekend.  We managed to visit with neighbors, high-school friends, and just relax with my parents.  And, on the way home, the babies slept the entire way.  What a great weekend.

At the end of the month, the babies celebrated Halloween by becoming a pair of pixie babies of the forest.  The outfits looked really cute, even if they are totally embarrassed later in life that I dressed them up. 

We found out that Kenan will need glasses because he is very nearsighted - so we went to pick out glasses.  Now that was a simple decision - because there was only one choice to fit my little guy.    I guess the industry is not used to making glasses for 12-pound babies.

Kira starts to really take off crawling and even standing up a bit.  Kenan is working with both Physical and Occupational therapists now, and they are helping him to learn to sit up properly.

For Thanksgiving we went over to Kevin & Heather's family celebration and spent time showing off Kenan's new glasses.  He's not so sure that he likes them, because every time I look around he has them in his hand and is banging them like a drumstick.

And, there is the fact that Kira likes to crawl over to him and steal his glasses also.   

Saskia painted a great little mural on the babies room walls to match the decor.   Every day that I go into the room I'm reminded of Saskia, and the twins get to see her handiwork each evening at bedtime.

Christmas was fun with the twins.  Kira sat up and just looked at all of the gifts in her stocking, and Kenan tried to slip-n-slide across the floor because he didn't want to sit up all the way.  

On December 30th is the babies first birthday.  We had a very quiet day, but will have a party to celebrate both the twins and mom's birthday in January. 

The birthday party for the twins was nice.  The babies had a lot of visitors, and they were really friendly to everyone.  When the cakes were brought out, each baby had their own individual cake to destroy.  Kira really enjoyed her little heart shaped pink cake, and managed to feed herself a big chunk.  Kenan wasn't so sure about his little bear cake.  He put his hand in the frosting and then looked at me like he wanted to say "my hand is dirty - now what do I do with it?".  His expression was priceless, as was Kira's face smothered in strawberry frosting.   A few friends from the NICU also were able to come, so it was fun to see how everyone has progressed in the past months.

With the start of a new year, I finally had a bit of vacation time available, so I took a week off from work and spent it with the babies.  We took our second road trip - this time to visit friends Lisa & John in Flagstaff, to meet their new daughter Sarah, and hang out with their twin girls, Meghan and Nicole.   It was just a day trip to spend some time away from Phoenix and to have some good conversation with friends that I don't get to see as often as I would like. It was fun to see their 2-year old twins helping to feed my 1-year old twins.

Kenan is learning how to roll, and has just figured out that he can get the toys that he wants if he works a little bit harder - I don't think it will be too much longer before he decides that crawling might be something he wants to do.

Kira is starting to really assert herself - especially with Kenan's glasses.  A few days ago, I caught her bouncing directly on top of Kenan, while trying to take his glasses off of his face.  She was quite upset with me when I removed her from Kenan's vicinity - and was back to bothering her brother in less than 2 minutes.  It probably won't be too far off before Kenan starts to come up with ways to get back at her for this.

I also got a few projects around the house completed during my vacation time - painting a wall in the living room a deep bluish purple color, and the back fence is now a deep forest green all around the house.  The garden is continuing to bloom with the winter bulbs, and now that the babies are healthy and more mobile - we have all been spending more time outdoors.

We went to Thatcher to visit with old friends and to hang out with family for a weekend - and this time we don't have to take any additional medical equipment with us - YEAH - what a treat!

Kira has learned how to scoot around furniture and stuff now, and just this week I caught her using Kenan as a stepstool so that she could climb up onto a little activity table.  She was perched on top on all fours, getting ready to try to stand up ON TOP OF THE TABLE when Kenan tattled on her - THANK GOODNESS!   I guess we are all in trouble now!!!!  

I wonder what adventures the twins will get into next????

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