Busy, busy!

We knew that September would be hectic with both Dave and Mairead going back to school, and we were right! I'm not even teaching my online courses this month (I start again in October) and things are crazy from sun up to sun down! We have a lot of fun things going on. For example, this past weekend, Lily came to visit with her mom and dad. Jack loves Lily and even shared his juice with her. She can't quite drink from a sippy cup yet at 8mos old, but she knows there is something good in there and she wants it!

I am impressed with Jack's sharing. Apparently, Jack and Ben are great at sharing, just not with each other. At the playground, there is one Cozy Coupe car and they fight over it every time. I took them today and while Ben was in it, Jack grabbed Ben's head with both hands and tried to drag him out. When Jack was in it, Ben pulled on Jack's shirt and whined. Interestingly, when other children were in it, there was no crying, no whining, and thankfully, no assault. They were fine with other kids using it, just not their brother.



Lily inherited this Brady jersey from Mairead. It is a size 12 mos, but both girls wore it from about 6-9 mos. I guess we just have tall girls in our family! We realized the other day that Lily and Mairead were the exact same weight at their 6mos pediatrician appointments.

This is what happens when twins help you do laundry.

Note the red fire truck boots in these pictures. I bought them at the MoMs sale this past weekend and the boys LOVE them. Ben brings one over to me and says, "Shoes! Shoes on!" until I put them on. They both wear them all around the house, even though I bought them for playing outside.

This is quite the ensemble on Jack. I think this is a blackmail picture when he is older!

Ben and Jack are both learning to sit and color a little more instead of just eating the markers.

Ben and Lily.

The babies are NOT morning people and it takes them a while to fully wake up. They need their blue blankets and each other.

While I was at the MoM Tag Sale, Mairead helped Grampy in the garden.

The kids are all doing well. The boys had their 18mos appt yesterday and are now 23.9lbs (Jack) and 24.5lbs (Ben). Ben is a quarter of an inch taller, and their heads have the exact same circumference. It's funny-some days I think they look so different, and other days I have to look twice to see who is who! The cutest thing is that when each one looks in the mirror, he says his brother's name. Ben started a few weeks ago with, "Jack. I see Jack!" when he saw his reflection, and now Jack says, "It's A-Bee"(what he calls Ben) when he looks into a mirror. It's very sweet!

The pediatrician was really happy with their growth and development. She was especially impressed with their language skills. It was nice to hear that! They had a lot of factors working against them in this area- they are preemies, they are boys, they are twins, and they are younger siblings of a child with poor communication skills. Still, they are advanced for any 18 mos old, and we are very proud of them! We work so hard on Mairead's communication skills that I think the boys really benefit from all of our techniques and strategies.

Mairead had her second day of preschool today and it went pretty well. The teacher is very kind and very patient. She did comment on the fact that Mairead is not so great at sitting still, and that Mairead lets her know when she does not want to do something. Is this news surprising to anyone? Definitely not. As teachers, it is hard for Dave and I to accept that our kid is not a 'model student,' but we know she is doing her best and that's all we can ask for.

I would love for Mairead to be able to tell us about her day and we are working on that. If I ask the right questions, she can sort of piece together things and tell me, "Snack time. Make a sun." That's a start!

Starting tomorrow, Mairead will have speech for 1 hour a week through the public schools. And next week, she starts an hour of Occupational Therapy on Tuesday evenings. She is one busy kid. I know that she needs all of this, but sometimes it's hard that she can't just be a regular kid and do regular kid stuff. I also need to find activities for the boys since they are getting older and need to socialize with kids their own age. I feel like a mom/teacher/activities director/limo driver!