What an amazing weekend! Saturday morning started off with a walk to the farmers market with our friend Kelly and her two boys, Sophie & Trent, and our friend Deirdre, Grandma Judy, uncle Corey and cousin Lily. We had such a wonderful time. We got animal balloons, danced to the music at the market, purchased wonderful bouquets of flowers, and sweet treats. It was so nice to be able to be able to share our Saturday morning ritual with our friends and family. On Saturday afternoon we celebrated the babies baptism at Saint Andrews Church. Both babies on the traditional baptism outfits. Trent looked a bit like a baker in his outfit while Sophie looked like a amish. I had asked a priest friend whom I knew at Loyola Marymount to officiate and we ended up with two priests since the church came with one. I was a bit concerned that we were mixing to religions – Episcopalian and Catholic but all worked out the well. The priest Ernest who came with the church was a bit long winded and the babies got a little fussy eating the programs but once we got going they were great. Similar to last year at this time we were surrounded yesterday by family and close friends but this year it was for a celebration rather than concern for the future. Its hard to compare yesterday to everything that happened a year ago and think where we are today. We were so lucky to be able to have Father George come down from Sacramento (where he runs the Newman center) to officiate. He was my savior when I was at LMU and grieving over my mother’s death during my freshman year in college and to have him baptize my babies was just incredible. We then had a nice front yard celebration at our house afterwards with the adult enjoy good food, conversation and drink while the babies rolled around in their playpen. The day was so special.
We so enjoyed the fabulous weather this weekend brought and had our first spring barbeque with our neighbors tonight. Sophie is working SO hard at crawling and is doing the army crawl. She was so into the Frisbee- we think she thought is was a giant piece of Tupperware. Trent, loved being pulled around in our neighbors wagon. Aaron and I definitely see a wagon purchase in our future.’
Tomorrow we get back right back at it with physical therapy in the morning and the babies one-year boosters in the afternoon. Hopefully these will be their last shots for a while.
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Today more friends and family arrived for the baptism. It was so wonderful to see the babies playing with cousin Lily. We are SO glad spring is finally here. Lots of outdoors and park time. Last night we had Sophie in here jumpy chair out on the front lawn. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the grass when she jumped on it- but soon got used to it. In addition to his crawling, our little Trentman has shown a strong interest in walking and is trying really hard to do so when we hold up is arms. Much like when he started trying to crawl, he kicks out of one of his legs to get started (sort of like doing the ole’ soft shoe) but then is ready to take his steps as long as someone is holding his arms. Our physical therapist has told us its very important that both babies are flat footed when trying to stand and so we’ve forcing their feet down. Today our wonderful caregiver Doris was working with Sophie on her crawling. She was forcing her legs into the crawling position while I sat a distance away – trying to coax Sophie to come to me. She really wants to do it but sliding our her belly is so much easier than using her legs and upper body and she gets frustrated when we prop her up in the crawling position.
Tomorrow will be a big day for both babies but a celebration we’ve waited a long time for. We are so grateful that we will have so many family members and close friends who will be able to participate in the event.
Today Grandma Judy arrived from Missouri to participate in the baby’s baptism. Aaron and I don’t see the changes in them since we see them everyday but Grandma Judy was beyond thrilled with their progress. She can’t believe how big they’ve gotten since January. And each with their own personalities. They were so happy to see her too! They also got to meet aunt Meg today (my sister) .She brought them toy airplane and a paper map- which Sophie immediately put on her head (aunt Meg is a pilot) and both babies couldn’t have been more thrilled. Although they can be shy sometimes, they both took to Aunt Meg and Sophie girl fell asleep in her arms.
We’re so excited for our family and friends to come and see the baby’s incredible progress.
Our Trentman is getting a little more verbal everyday. I’ve noticed that now when I make a silly noise – both babies mimic me. I’m so happy he’s starting to get more verbal. Of course I do realize that while its very cute right now- should they continue to do this in their teenage years, it won’t be cute any longer. They really seem to know each other and play with one another. Wrestling, tugging at each other and climbing over each other.
This weekend we will have the baby’s baptism. When they were first born and things were so dire, I had looked into having them baptized in the NICU but couldn’t find a priest and then things just improved and it didn’t seem so necessary to get it done immediately. Our intent for this weekend is for it to be a celebration. While we are baptizing the babies as Catholics- its really up to them to determine where they get their faith and determine their beliefs as they get older. One of the things that are going to make this a special event is the amount of family that will be present and the priest who will be doing the baptism. The priest who will be doing it is someone that I met during my college years at Loyola Marymount and helped me move through my grief after my mother died. Being a Jesuit, he looks at the world with realistic, contemporary eyes and it means a great deal to me that he will be baptizing our miracle babies. All the stars seem to be aligning. The weather, the amazing progress of the babies, make it a great time to celebrate.
Today the babies had their physical therapy visit. Overall they both did well and we learned new exercises to help them get ready to walk. She continues to be extremely pleased with Trent’s increased flexibility and vastly improved muscle tone. It’s a tough 90 minutes for them. We’re supposed to take the cushions off the couch and then place a toy in the empty space. We’re then supposed to stand the babies up and have them hold onto the couch. The objective of all this is to get them used to standing and try to force them to be flat footed rather than standing on their toes. Trent’s lower extremities have always been stronger than Sophie’s and we can definitely see it when we do these exercises. The therapist has said she thinks Sophie is just a few weeks away from crawling. We were told when they were born that they would totally catch up developmentally by the time they were two – but Sophie’s hydrocephalus adds a whole new dimension of the unknowns. Its hard not to the worry of the past year come back when we see that she is definitely behind him and try as she might- she just can’t master the crawling thing yet. You can see the determination in her face and we can tell she wants to be just like her brother and doesn’t understand why she can’t get all her limbs working the same way. She improvises quite a bit though by sliding on her tummy and trying to keep up with him. I’m kind of mentally preparing myself that her walking may be delayed too but for now – we’ll just keep doing their exercises and doing every thing we can to strengthen her trunk to get her moving.
Today our wonderful caregiver brought the babies their first sand pail. WOW. They were so thrilled. I’m not sure if it’s the primary colors or the little sand wheels on it but as soon as she walked in the house with it today- they were both transfixed. They later got to try it out and experience sand for the first time at the park. I’m sure it was tempting it eats it but enticement with the pail and shovel overcame the temptation. We can’t wait for the warm weather to take them to the beach.
Tomorrow the physical therapist comes again. The substitute therapist is still ill so we’ll once again have Carol – the lady who owns pediatric interventions. She is so good with the babies and we’re so excited to have her see them. Hopefully she can recommend some additional exercises to help get her hips stronger and coordinate her movements a little more. Its funny, she has such strong legs and just kicks and kicks her brainy baby toy in her crib but seems to have a bit of difficulty coordinating all her movements together.
The babies are working really hard to get mobile. Trent is sooo busy. As I chased him around the house today I kind of started to wonder if the addition we’d done was such a good idea since he’s now exploring every single inch of it- with me right behind him. Sophie is scooting herself silly but can’t seem stay up on all fours. She tries really hard but just doesn’t have the strength. We keep propping her up though and helping her along. Every day we’re picking more things off shelves and putting them up. Our poor cat. He still outweighs them but now Trent has started to chase him. Poor Zeek pretty soon he’ll be out numbered when they both get going. The faster he runs the faster Trent tries to crawl.
The both are getting such unique personalities. Aaron took the attached picture of Sophie this evening. He calls it “girls gone wild”. We’re hoping the need to take her clothes off it just a pass phase.
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