Growing

It's December and almost two months have gone by since my last post. I have been contemplating how to write this entry and that has resulted in my putting it off more and more. So as the boys near the end of their naps, and I sit in a partially cleaned living room, I will just catch up as best as I can.

Halloween and thanksgiving have come and gone as well as many more noteworthy experiences. The boys are growing so much every day that I can hardly keep up with them. I don't see babies when I look at them anymore. I see little boys. They play together, share their toys (and take them) they wrestle with each other and with Chase and me, they swing from furniture, climb on everything, jump on the couches and race around the house. They blow bubbles, pet Kita, read to themselves, and try to cheer the other up when they cry. They are the most amazing human beings I have even known.

Shortly before Halloween, my mom came for a visit. We took the boys to Simmons Farm where they have great fall activities for young kids; a hay ride, pumpkin patches, a petting zoo and a lot more. We took the boys on a beautiful crisp morning. They looked so sharp in their new fall coats. We went to the same farm last fall to get our pumpkins and we went on the hay ride but the boys were so little they weren't able to do much more than just sit in the stroller. This year they loved running around amongst the pumpkins and in the corn maze. While I searched for Indian Corn, they were happy to munch on their cookies with Grams and play in the tall stalks.

My little Halloween party turned out to be just that; little. A few people canceled on me but we still decided to have it. There were a lot of yummy home made snacks and a big pot of chili for everyone. A few of the boy's friends came and everyone looked great in their costumes. Unfortunately Chase wasn't able to be there for the majority of the party because he wasn't able to get off work early enough but we all had a good time none the less. The boys were so adorable as little dragons. When Halloween rolled around, they were so excited about getting back into their costumes. We didn't take them trick or treating this year though because it was raining really hard all night and the boys were already fighting colds. But the four of us sat outside on the deck handing out candy to all of our neighbors. Their costumes were perfect for cold weather as they covered their heads and hands. Everyone who came up to our house was so taken by how cute the boys were. And they had a blast watching everyone come and go. With every group of kids the boys would run to the edge of the deck and shout and point at them. They had such a great time!

Between Thanksgiving and Halloween Chase and I went to our first Steelers game. It was a really crazy experience. I'm not sure if this is widely known, but Pittsburgh fans are some of the best fans there are. Even if all of the teams in this city were terrible, it would still be a sports town just because of the fans. It's incredible. We got to the game and there were tailgaters everywhere we looked. It was clear that many of them had been there for hours. They had their grills out, they were all playing corn hole, people had tents set up, music was blaring, and almost everyone was drunk. It seems like with fans like that the teams would have to be good. Unfortunately, this year, the Steelers are proving that theory wrong. Anyway, the game itself was a lot of fun. We had box seats and they won! In addition to watching the game, I was really happy just looking around at all the fans in the stadium, which by they way, is really beautiful. It's an open air stadium with beautiful views of the city, the rivers and Mount Washington. We also went to a Pittsburgh vs Colorado hockey game. We were both so excited to watch our old team playing our new team. Yes dad, our new team :) However, once we got there, both of us were cheering for Colorado. And the Avs won! The Pittsburgh fans weren't too happy with us, but the Avs deserved the win, not to mention how badly they needed it. It's been far too long since Colorado has had a good hockey team. Go Avs!

We didn't forget about the boys during all of this fun though. The Ringling Brothers Circus came to Pittsburgh in November and we went as a family. It was a big deal for us to take the boys into the city at night and expect them to happily sit through a two hour show at a big indoor stadium but they did so well. There was so much going on that at times I was worried that they were just getting overloaded with stimuli, but they seemed to be fine. After about 45 minutes they started to get into the show and start clapping with the rest of the audience, smiling and laughing at the clowns and pointing at the animals. As Chase and I were getting them all ready to go near the end of the show, they were pretty ready to go home, but then the motorcycles came out. The finale was, I believe, six motorcycles driving around in one of those round cages. I was most worried about this one because of the noise and all the flashing lights but these boys were completely transfixed! They stood up in their seats, were smiling, shouting, pointing and clapping all at once. They absolutely loved them. I couldn't believe it, but then again, I should have known better considering the fact that they are Chase Knotwell's kids.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful break for us. Chase had four days off for the holiday which was such a treat! He hand't had many days off at all and we were really missing having family time. The boys had slight colds and the weather wasn't the greatest, so we weren't able to do much outside or out of the house (as far as taking the boys anywhere to play) but we had such a good time as a family just being together. With our busy lives it's easy to forget how important that time together really is. Thanksgiving day was wonderful. He watched the boys while I cooked. This year we had a smaller turkey, but I still cooked the full meal: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberries and pumpkin pie. We have so many things to be thankful for. I wish that there were more days out of the year dedicated to looking at our lives and reflecting on things that we are thankful for. Thanksgiving is the only "official" day in our culture, but it helps remind me to be thankful through out the year.

We don't have our Christmas tree yet, but are hoping to get it this weekend. It's hard for us to fully get into the Christmas spirit with all of our family living out of state, but the main difficulty for us is the weather. We have had a few good snow falls already this year and some cold days, but over all, winters in Pittsburgh are quite mild compared to what we're used to. We got winter coats and ski bibs for the boys. They look so cute all bundled up! We're just waiting for a big snowstorm so that we can dress them up and take them outside to play. It's supposed to start snowing tonight and continue through the weekend, but they are forecasting rain at the end of this storm which means it's just going to get messy.

We're going to have a quiet Christmas here, however, quiet may not be the right word. We decided to give the boys an early Christmas present last night. They each got a new truck to push around and they were so excited when Chase brought them down stairs. They pushed them around until it was time for dinner and when we picked them up to put them in their seats they lost it. They were so sad to have to leave their trucks. And between dinner and bath time we made the mistake of letting them play with them again and were left with two toddlers screaming in the bath tub because they weren't allowed to bring their trucks with them. Needless to say, the trucks went back up into the office before they got out of their baths. But this morning, they were just as excited as last night to play with them.

Merry Christmas everyone!

An Autumnal Whirlwind

Unlike previous weeks, we've been very busy lately. Fall is a fun time in Pennsylvania. The tree are all so colorful and there are so many of them! The oranges and reds are my favorite. Some of the reds even  turn to deep purples as well. It's beautiful.

Since so much time has passed since my last post I have to look at my photos to remember what we have done between then and now. I was wrong in saying that the Pumpkin Festival was the weekend following Oktoberfest, but I'll write about both today. Unfortunately, the boys are still too little for the rides at Oktoberfest and the Pumpkin Festival, but we still had fun at both. Chase and I took the boys to Oktoberfest despite the weather that day. It was pretty chilly when we decided to go which actually ended up being ok. We were only there for about 30 minutes before giving up on the crowds of creepy carnival ride operators and equally creepy patrons. I feel like to work at a carnival you have to be creepy. I don't think I've ever been to one where the employees didn't give me a bad vibe, but none the less, Chase and the boys had a few bites to eat and I had some kind of Oktoberfest beer that appropriately had pumpkin undertones. We saw some of our neighbors and had fun strolling up and down the street looking at all the booths. I find myself to be so grateful that the boys aren't yet old enough to want every cheap colorful thing that's sold at things like that. But in a few years, we're sure to come home with life size stuffed animals, inflatable swords and many other worthless nicknacks, but until then, we're all just happy looking.

The weekend after Oktoberfest was beautiful. It was the perfect fall weekend. So sunny and warm with a little bit of a bite in the wind. Chase and I took the boys to a park that we had never been to before for  the La Leche League annual picnic. I'm still going to LLL meetings even though I'm not nursing the boys anymore because I am thinking about becoming a leader somewhere down the line. Anyway, it was so nice to get out and about with the family. It was a pot luck and I tried a new recipe. I brought broccoli bites, which are little broccoli and cheese pattys. they're super easy to make and healthy and the boys love them! So did everyone at the picnic:) It was really fun for me to bring Chase to something like that so he could meet everyone and watch the boys play with all the other kids. We tried getting them to draw on the sidewalk with some chalk that someone brought but it just ended up in their mouths. Liam liked carrying around the chalk bucket though. The park was next to a big hill that was in the sun so that became a favorite place for the boys to play. The hill was pretty steep but they loved crawling up it and sliding down little bits here and there. It was so cute watching them struggle to get up to the top and then run around once they got all the way up. 

Liam and the chalk bucket going up the hill

Choosing a safer way down

One of our fall activities that started up recently is mommy and me swimming at one of the rec centers here. I was really nervous about going since there are two of them and just one of me and we're in the water, but two of my friends go to the class with their kids as well and they both offered to help me if I needed it. So a few weeks ago we went to our first class. It was a blast and a good workout for me! The rec center has a lazy river in it that is about 3 feet deep and that's where the classes are held. The instructor has us do "exercises" with the kids as we walk/run/jump around the river. It's small enough for us to make it around the entire thing in about two  minutes I'd guess so it's perfect. We go around once doing one exercise and then turn around and do the same exercise going the other so that we are working against the current for added resistance. I can't do everything in the class like lifting the boys out etc. but it's still really good for them to go up and down in the water getting comfortable with it going over their ears sometimes and splashing them. We take breaks too and they sit on the edge of the pool while I bounce up and down in front of them and they are encouraged to splash and kick their feet.  Last week they got little rubber duckys to play with during class and they loved that. This isn't swim lessons, but it will be really helpful when it comes time to put them in lessons knowing that they're already really comfortable in the water. Liam is more tentative than Landon. He still cries when the water gets in his face most times, but he's getting better.

With Kai, Brighton, Lori and Katie

There is a big water slide in the pool as well and the first day we went, my friends put their boys down the slide. I was shocked! It's a pretty big slide and I was worried that they'd scream the whole time but they actually really enjoyed it. I think I'll wait a few more classes before L&L go down the slide, but even without that, they seem to really like going.

Rachael (our nanny) watched the boys a few weeks ago for Chase and me and we went into the city to look at a big rubber ducky that came to Pittsburgh. It is part of an arts festival in the city called the "Festival of Firsts." It's an art installment that has been all over the world I guess. An artist came up with the idea to put life size rubber duckys in the water in certain cities. This was the duck's first appearance in the US which is kind of cool. Something that I didn't know at first was that each city gets their own duck. Ours was assembled somewhere in Ohio and was at "the point" for three weeks. I don't think it's there anymore or maybe this is the last week. Anyway, the artist believes that we are all connected by our waterways and that they form one big global bath tub, hence the duck. It seems a little strange, but it's a really big deal in Pittsburgh! The point is a park at the tip of the city where two of the three rivers meet and form the Ohio. We had never been before so this was a good excuse to go. It's beautiful there. If you look online at photos of Pittsburgh they're almost all of the point or at least have the fountain in them. So not only did we get to see the duck, but we got to experience a true Pittsburgh thing! It was a really fun afternoon. After we saw the duck and played for a while at the point we walked up to Station Square where we like to eat when we're in the city. It was about a 20 minute walk through downtown. We both felt so urban. So much fun! We had a really good dinner and some drinks and enjoyed a nice walk back to our car over bridges and through tall buildings. 

Finally, the Pumpkin Festival was upon us. It was a cold rainy weekend last weekend so we were worried that we weren't going to be able to get out and about but on the last day of the festival the rains stopped. We walked to the park around noon and had our lunches there. I had a loaded baked potato that was the size of an eggplant. It was huge! I was hoping that the boys would eat some but they were too busy eating Chase's pulled pork sandwich to even think about eating any of my food so I ended up eating the whole thing which was easier than I thought. We had some fresh squeezed lemonade and had a nice time eating in the pavilion listening to a local band. There were countless booths selling homemade goodies and crafts that we poked through. I found a cute wooden ghost, but that was about it. We let the boys run around for a while in the open space by the river for a while and then decided to give the petting zoo a try since they couldn't ride the train. The petting zoo was such a big hit. I was a little nervous about how the boys would react around all the animals (calfs, baby goats, baby pigs, a turkey, some chickens, rabbits and even an alpaca!) but they had a blast. They were probably so comfortable around the animals because of kita. The whole time they were squealing, and laughing and running after the animals, sticking their hands out and getting licked and they even had some baby goats nibble on their clothes. They didn't want to leave when it was time to go. Chase and I had so  much fun in there with them. They animals were really cute. Our favorites were the little goats, but who doesn't love little baby pigs?

Liam kept pulling his tail

There is a "kids mania" sale at the Washington county fair ground a couple of times a year that I like to go to. It has good quality clothing for kids at really good prices. I went last fall when they boys were little and bought a ton of stuff. Well the sale was a few weeks ago and we went again. I spent around $170 and bought them almost everything they need for fall and winter. Jeans, overalls, sweatshirts, long sleeved shirts, pajamas....you name it. Nothing beats getting bargains. Especially with twins!

I think that I've covered all the big fun things we've been doing the past few weeks. We're still going to story time at the library and hanging out with friends. Liam is doing a lot better as far as the Lyme disease goes. He finished his antibiotic regiment and about five days after starting, the ring around the bite went away. I'm just hoping all the bacterial is out of his body. Both boys have been taking herbs, drinking Kefir milk and eating fruits and veggies that are supposed to help your gut and strengthen your immune system. Stuff I started doing when Liam started getting the antibiotic, but with it being cold and flue season, it's a good idea to keep it up. Chase's welding truck broke down about a week ago and is still in the shop. Thankfully one of his friends here had an extra truck that he is borrowing so that he can still work. I have been working on getting things in order for the Halloween party that we are having here in a few weeks. It's a costume party and I am so excited about it! I'm planning to make lots of yummy halloween treats for everyone, I'm working on getting spooky decorations in order, and thinking up games for the kids, and adults to play. I can't wait to tell everyone about it! This weekend we are going to our first Steelers game. We're both really excited. Perhaps us being there will help turn things around for them. Also, on Monday we're going to a pens v avs hockey game which is going to be a blast as well. I probably wont post again until after Halloween, but I'll be sure to have lots of good photos. Happy Halloween!

Labor Day and Lyme Disease

We haven't been back in PA long. But we've been back long enough for our little Liam to get bitten by a tick and infected with Lyme disease. Maybe a week after getting back I noticed a strange bite on his leg just a little bit above his right ankle. I had heard a story on NPR not long before about Lyme and thought to myself "how awful would it be if this is Lyme." But it didn't have the halo around it that is so often associated with the disease so I decided to just watch the bite and see if it got worse. About two and a half weeks later the halo appeared and my heart sank. I took him to the doctor the next day and we walked out with a months supply of an antibiotic and that was that. Since then I have been feverishly researching the disease and all forms of treatment from your typical antibiotic regiment all the way down to acupuncture.

Initial bite

Bite with halo

I could go on forever about the details of the disease, but thousands of people before me have already done so. Basically, the bacteria that causes Lyme is extremely smart and hard to kill. One can be infected for years and not know it until one day they begin to feel the painful symptoms that come with the disease. We were lucky (or not) to see the rash on Liam's leg because that is one of the few early signs that one has been infected. Chase and I have our reservations about continuing Liam on his antibiotic because of how ineffective antibiotics have been proven to be when it comes to treating Lyme. That is why we are pursuing alternative forms of treatment in addition to the antibiotic. Lyme isn't something that will be with him for the remainder of his life necessarily, however, as I mentioned before, it is very difficult to cure. If anyone is interested in learning more about Lyme, I encourage you to do so. Also, if anyone has any advice, we would love to hear it. I will say that other than the bite, Liam has absolutely no other signs of having Lyme. He is our normal happy-go-lucky guy and every day we're striving to keep it that way!

Other than the realization that Liam has Lyme, things have been rather low key here. The weather is changing and our days are much cooler than before which is so nice. It hasn't gotten out of the 60s the past few days which means we've been spending more time outside. We bought the boys their first 4wheelers last week. We hadn't been planning on getting them but we saw them in the store and they had so much fun on them we couldn't pass them up. There was only one out of the box so we let Liam drive and Landon sat behind him and held on. It was so cute to watch them driving around crashing into things and laughing. They still don't quite get the steering aspect, but they sure do have fun. To drive them, all they have to do is push the button on the handlebar and they're off. Chase has even taught them how to get themselves "unstuck" when they drive into a tree or the fence.

On Labor Day Chase and I took the boys to a water park in the city. They're too little for any of the rides there, but we all had a lot of fun playing in the kitty pools. Landon is always more adventurous than Liam it seems, but they both got quite brave as the day wore on. The pool was perfect for them because it didn't have sides that they had to step off of to get into the water. The sides of the pool gradually sloped down like a beach so they could wade right in. Liam's favorite part was running in, turning around when it got too deep, and running back out again. Landon had fun exploring the deeper water with dad. It was a fun way to spend the holiday.

I'm looking forward to winter as I always do. Planning for things that the boys and I can do to occupy our time since we won't be able to be outside as much. I am taking the boys to two different library programs that are starting up this week, we also sampled a "mommy and me yoga class" the other day. It was pretty awful to be honest. There were probably 60 people there all together. The AC in the building was turned off so we were all sweating like crazy. The kids (ranging from newborn to 4 years) were totally out of control and the instructor was doing her best to talk loud enough for all the moms to hear. L&L kept taking her phone and unplugging the little AC unit. So needless to say, once the free trial runs out, we're going to find something else to Monday mornings. Hot Yoga with toddlers? No thanks. I may, however, go to "mommy and me swim classes" with two of my friends and their kids. We also really like going to the science center and children's museum. Today we went to the children's museum with our new friends Tasha and her son Breckon. There is a new exhibit at the museum that is all beach balls. There is an area about the size of a school cafeteria and the majority of the room was filled with small and medium beach balls. The boys all had so much fun running around in the sea of balls, throwing and kicking them and rolling around on the ground with them. What a good idea for an exhibit.

Oktoberfest is coming up in a few weeks and Canonsburg puts on a really fun fair every year. There are carnival rides, good food and bands every night for three nights. We're looking forward to that and then the next week is the Houston Pumpkin Festival. I can't believe its already that time of year again. Maybe this year we'll take the boys on some of the rides at Oktoberfest, but if not, they should be just the right age for the little train rides at the Pumpkin Festival!

Starting Up Again

Hello all!

Welcome to my new blog. As promised, this is an extension of my previous blog; "The First Year," in which I wrote about the first year of our twins lives. I'm so glad that I kept a record of the events of that year. It was a fun way for me to share my life with family and friends, but I loved re-reading my posts and thinking back fondly on the times that I wrote about. That is the main reason I wanted to start a new blog. Time flies. It's so easy to get caught up in our every day lives that we forget to cherish the moments that are slipping away so quickly. I don't keep a journal, so my blog posts serve as a way for me to hang on to those moments. Perhaps it's just me being a bit self absorbed thinking that anyone else enjoys reading about my life as much as I do, but in case that's true, enjoy!

It's been almost six months since my last blog post. And during that time our family has gone through some BIG changes. The boys got their first, and second, and third and fourth hair cuts, they started walking, I stopped breast feeding them, they went on their first (and second) big road trip, their parents got married, they spent a week away from mommy and daddy, they're starting to talk and they're getting bigger every day. I wish I had started this blog sooner so as to cover all of those big changes in more depth, but with the stress of the wedding, driving across country and having a wonderful vacation, I couldn't find the time to really catch my breath, let alone start a new blog. However, I'll try my best to catch everyone up, after first touching on the highlights of the past few months.

Landon walking with Grandpa

The boys started walking a few months after their first birthday. Interestingly enough, Liam was first to start walking. With many other developmental milestones Landon was first to reach them, followed closely by his brother but that wasn't the case here. Liam took his first confident steps around 13 months and Landon followed about a month later. I was surprised by how little their learning to walk changed our routine. They were already crawling everywhere and getting into everything, walking just added an element of hight to the equasion. I had to clear everything off of my tables and any other places that were now within their reach. More falls and bonked heads came along with their newly discovered skill as well. But being able to walk made our trips to the park and other play dates much more fun for everyone involved. 

Around the first of May, I decided that I was going to have to start weaning the boys. By July, we were going to be driving out to Colorado for our wedding and then at the end of that month, Chase and I were going to the Bahamas for a week without the boys and I knew that if I continued to nurse them until we left for our honeymoon, the boys and I would have been very miserable. We started the delicate process of weaning slowly. Since breastfeeding is so much more than a way to feed your children, I was concerned with the emotional toll weaning was going to have on myself, the boys and Chase. I was also worried about the physical changes that would be taking place in my body because of the countless times that I come down with Mastitis over the months in which I was nursing. The beginning was pretty hard on all of us. I cut down on one nursing session every two weeks which is what pediatricians recommend and this approach worked for us for the first few sessions. But when it came to nap time and nighttime sessions, it was harder. So after getting a lot of help from a good friend I had met through La Leche League, I decided to be much more relaxed about it and let it happen more naturally. "Gently encouraging the weaning process" as it is refereed to in books. This was the best advice I could have gotten. I had gotten the boys down to only nursing at night by the end of June. Then there were three nights in a row where the boys didn't wake up at all. We had gone four days without nursing, and I told myself that that was it. I couldn't start back up again if they woke up asking to nurse. On the fourth night they woke up asking to nurse and I simply rocked them for a while, and laid them back down to sleep. It wasn't as easy as I'm making it sound, but you get the general ideal. By early July, we were done nursing! If I had known that I would successfully breastfeed my twins to 15 months when I was starting out I think that would have made things a lot easier! It was challenging, but I'm so glad that it worked out for us:)

Resting in Kansas City with Great Grandma Nancy on our road trip

I'm not really sure where to begin when it comes to the road trips. I'll just start by first thanking Maggie from the bottom of my heart for helping me with the drive from Pennsylvania to Colorado. Also, thanks to Maggie's family in Indiana as well as the Terry and Penkowski families for letting us stay with you guys along the way. Being able to stay with family and have help with the boys and a place for Kita to run around was so much nicer than having to find hotels. Maggie, the boys, Kita and I drove my car and an oversized Uhaul from Pittsburgh to Steamboat over the course of four very long, stressful days. Whoever wasn't driving was most likely in "baby land" as it became known, which was in the back seat wedged between two car seats and two antsy toddlers. Usually singing, playing games, clapping, feeding them, just trying anything to keep them from crying. Suffice it to say, I have never been happier to get to my dad's house.  Once we arrived, I swore that I would never make that trip again and that Chase and I were going to have to figure out a different way to get back out to Pennsylvania. I even went so far as to say we would just leave my car in Colorado and fly back to Pennsylvania and then just buy a new car when we got back, but that wasn't Chase's favorite option.

Their first trip up the Gondola!

Playing with Grandpa at the base of the ski hill

Hiking on Mt. Warner with Grandpa, Omi and Kita

After the honeymoon, Chase and I had not other choice but to make the drive again. The longest stretch (9 hours without stops) is from Denver to Kansas City. Maggie and I made that drive at night because we couldn't imagine trying to make it during the day and that strategy worked quite well for us, so Chase and I decided to drive at night the whole time in hopes that the boys would sleep, thus making the trip shorter and less stressful. That plan worked! We made the drive in just two nights. Two very long nights. And now, I'm swearing again (and hopefully meaning it this time) that I will never do it again.

Our wedding and honeymoon were so wonderful, I could go on and on....and on about them so I will try to keep it as brief as possible. We had a beautiful ceremony outside in Steamboat. It poured down rain on all of us making for a very memorable ceremony to say the least. All us got thoroughly drenched but everyone there were such good sports about it. Chase and I loved the rain. And ironically, whenever anything significant has occurred in our relationship, it has been pouring down rain so we should have known that it would be raining on our wedding day. And like everyone says, rain on your wedding day is good luck!

The day after the wedding, Marcy and Skyler took the boys to Encampment where they stayed while Chase and I were on our Honeymoon. We were both so sad knowing that we were going to be without our babies for a whole week! But we knew that they were with family and that we had nothing to worry about which was very reassuring. Chase and I had a blast in the Bahamas. We swam with dolphins, sharks, pigs and sting rays, ate delicious Bahamian food, laid out on the beautiful beaches, and just enjoyed not having anything to do. After the stress of the weeks preceding our honeymoon, nothing could have been better. It was tough to be without the boys, but talking to Marcy and getting pictures of the boys every few days was really helpful.

Rock climbing with Papa

Landon

Now that we are back home, Chase is back to work and the boys and I are back into our normal routine. Fall is approaching quickly and we are feeling the distance between our families and friends. It was so wonderful for us to be close to everyone. For us to share our boys with our families and for us to enjoy everyone's company again. We are still happy in our Pittsburgh home and with the life we have made for ourself here, but wish that the distance wasn't so great. We know that we'll move back west sometime, but until then, I'll keep blogging!