Road Trip!

Last weekend the boys took a road trip to Des Moines to meet both set grandparents and Aunt Rachel and Uncle Kyle. The destination is exactly half way from SD to IL……such a short drive in comparison to the full trip!! The boys did not sleep much on the way there, but luckily did pretty good in their respective pack-n-plays at night. We were gone for just the weekend, and yet the entire back end of the Explorer was full of ‘stuff.' Really, do they need that much stuff?!! One of us sat between the boys while the other drove – even the passenger’s seat up front was filled. Yes, your math is correct: no room for another child!

Our family was SO excited to see the boys. They say they were excited to see Nathan and I, too, but we were last on the list for hugs! The weekend was very relaxing---yes---I did say relaxing although I was in charge of twin 5 month olds! We really had minimal plans except for shopping- I didn’t have to cook or clean and I just knocked on the wall in the morning when Jaden was up and looking for someone to share his smiles with.

Evan and Jaden loved every minute of the constant attention! They even got to go swimming for the first time! (I’ll post pictures of that experience soon.) They slept almost the entire way home. Looks like we’ve started a great midwinter break tradition!

Jaden was SO so tired our last evening,

but just didn't want to miss anything!

Thanks Aunt Rachel for cuddle-time.

Uncle Kyle taught Jaden how to blow bubbles.....he loves practicing that now. I just hope he doesn't get the idea while eating!!

Evan--needing his eyes covered to finally fall asleep for a power nap! Good work Uncle Kyle!

The Grandpas feeding the boys rice cereal.

Evan: "Is Grandma Pam going to have us sing songs again?"

Jaden: "Yup- looks like it! Don't forget to clap on beat this time!"

Grandma Linda gets Jaden to fall asleep for naptime.

5 Months Young!

Evan and Jaden have turned 5 months old already! Cliché to say, but they really do grow every day! They give more and more smiles- Jaden still smiles more in the morning; Evan in the evening. With day care, they are in a pretty good naptime routine- which I’m still working on during the weekends! They both are eating about 1 Tbsp of rice cereal a day- Evan finally gets the idea of swallowing the mushy cereal instead of wearing it on his bib.

Here are their monthly pictures.

Evan

Jaden

Can we get some brown sugar with this?!

Evan and Jaden turned 5 months old last week! ‘5 months’ marked the comprising age of when Nathan and I would start solid foods with the boys. I think because the books said you could start at 4 months, Nathan has been ready to go! My thoughts were- they are sleeping well, they were born early, so we’ll wait til 6 months. I was also thinking more dishes, more time, more mess……yup, I think I was right!! But also, more fun to watch them explore and learn what a spoon is, and how it works!

So rice cereal…..sounds so simple. I had to start at the grocery store. I was amazed at how many ingredients were in the box of Gerber rice cereal. I didn’t ever want to be ‘that mom’, but I did end with a box of organic whole grain rice cereal.

Nathan put the highchairs together and they take up way more space than I thought they would……good thing they match the kitchen, I guess! And no, they are not staying right in the middle of our kitchen like they are in the video. You can see that Jaden does a pretty good job of learning how to eat from a spoon……Evan not so much. But he’ll get plenty of practice this month!