41 Weeks, Blog Post #100 - Life from a different perspective

September 26, 2011
By: A NEW Guest Blogger

A totally new guest blogger has agreed to write for our 100th post milestone. It is presented unedited, so reader discretion is advised.


I had it so good, and now it's gone. Noise all the time, being roused from my favorite spots. Not being able to eat in peace. F&%$ my life.

Before going any further, I suppose I should introduce myself for those who have not had the pleasure of me humping your leg, er, making my acquaintance. They call me Meigs, and I am the labradoodle living with Matt and Cyndi. Yeah, I'm part poodle but don't let that fool you. I sound like a mean SOB from the other side of the front door (nevermind that I slink away faster than you can say "Who pooped on the carpet?" when you walk in the door). I'm generally pretty lax but lately.... well, we'll get to that.

Those first few statements can accurately summarize my last few months as a dog. You know, when the twins first came home from the hospital, they made a little noise, but other than that, I could not care less. They had the same lifestyle I had adopted: eat, sleep, poop. But now that those two are mobile, I practically have to sleep with one eye open. For example, I have a great spot under my kitchen table which I have claimed as my domain from the beginning. It's protected on all sides except one from intruders, and everyone else seems to respect that. Not Tyler and Zach.

Here's how a typical morning goes: There I am, chilling under the table, and here comes one, maybe both, dragging themselves across the floor until they are just inches from my paws. Here come the little hands, grabbing and pulling without regard to my tranquility . Ugg, ok, I guess I'll get up. Whatever, I'll just go over to my bed underneath the TV. Shit, it's 830am and I've been up for an hour - time for a nap of at least 2 1/2 hrs. I close my eyes for just a few minutes, and boom, here comes the other one looking to take a handful of my fur as a souvenir or something. I mean, I know my fur is soft and luxurious, but that's mine, man! Unless I'm getting a belly scratch or butt rub, I'm not interested. Keep your hands to yourselves.

I'm well aware of the pecking order around here: Meigs = bottom. I know this because after Matt gets up, he gets the twins' food ready and then goes to gather them from their nursery, brings them downstairs, and they get their bottles. Hello?!? I have not relieved myself in like 11 hours! More importantly, I gotta find out who has been doing their business all over MY property. And hey, there may have been some fine tail roaming through the yard while I was busy doing, uh, whatever it is I do all day. (Disregard the fact that once I do go outside it's not like I expunge my waste with great haste. I often walk, sniff, walk, sniff, fake like I'm going to pee, then my ADD kicks in and I'm off to the next smell before I'm able to get a drop out.)

So after the morning is spent dodging those two, I'm feeling a little famish and remember I heard the sound of kibble hitting my bowl a few hours back. Sure, I'll go get some breakfast. Halfway through my meal, which I am scarfing down because I know what is about to happen, I feel someone trying to grab at my tail. WTF, brah? I let you eat in peace, how about extending me the same courtesy?

I must admit though, it is not all doom and gloom when T&Z are around. Licking their faces has become favorite pastime, and I think them eating solids is going to result in a goldmine of dropped food for me. I've already been getting some of those little puffs things and a few bananas covered in Cheerios - almost as good as the Goldfish that seem to continuously drop from the table. Bring on the handfuls of mashed potatoes and pieces of filet!

All in all, I have a great life -- it used to be a fantastic life when it was just the three of us, but I guess there's no going back now. I do look forward to them throwing me my ball and rope and chasing them around the yard.

Now, as your reward for making through my rants, pictures of me!!

Relaxing in my corner under the table

Oh yeah, picture of me for once!

Double Teamed?!  Really Guys???

And again, I was relaxing on my a/c vent and here he comes ...

A walk to the park ... I love going for a ... WALK!

40 weeks old & our 99th post

By Cyndi
September 19, 2011

The past week has been quite hectic.  Matt worked overtime one night and  since the boys are officially army crawling, it doesn't leave much time left for anything.  Tyler is more adventurous that Zach, but they are both moving around the main level every time they are left to play. 

We are still waiting on the 2nd top tooth for Tyler to break and Zach has had zero progress since last week, except for both being fussy all. the. time.  Thank goodness we had a visitor this weekend who we love to have around.  Jason was training in Delaware past week and took the train down to spend the weekend with us.  Since it is so much easier when I have a second set of hands, I actually accomplished things during the day while Matt was at work.  We went out to dinner both Saturday and Sunday night.  Saturday night we went to Dogfish Head Alehouse and let's just say, Zach was a little tired after two one hour naps instead of two 1.5 hour naps.

Tyler & I

Zach enjoying his dinner :)  (Yes, we cleaned the table very well prior)

Zach a little while later.  Call us bad parents, but he was comfortable & quiet.

On Sunday, the boys had a special treat of watching a little football.  At least they sat all by themselves for the few minutes they were allowed to watch.

Thanks for visiting Jason ... come again soon!

And since our next post will be #100 ... a guest blogger might be making an appearance. 

39 Weeks Old, 2*2=4, again?

By Cyndi
September 13, 2011

We are teething again in the Alderson house.  Let me be honest.  It is not fun for them or me.  They are fairly whiney and just not super smiley happy babies, like normal.  Tyler is feeling the most teething pain with BOTH front teeth on top.  Once again, we do things in twos. Firrst it was the two bottom ones at the same time and now the top ones. One you can see and the other is very swollen and only a few days behind to break through.

When they aren't whining, they are scooting, slowly!  They are not doing it all the time, but when we have a toy to entice, or Meigs in a somewhat nearby location, off they go!  On Saturday, Tyler made it to Meigs' favorite spot under the kitchen table and started grabbing at his paws.  Meigs ignored it for a minute and then got up and moved.  Zach did the same thing, but entered Meigs' zone on his bed.  I do feel bad for Meigs, because he has NO idea what life will be like once these guys really start moving!!

We had a fun bbq, hosted with the Isaacs, over the weekend.  We estimate 30 adults and 10 kids.  It was crazy and I didn't take one picture since I was busy holding a kid & hosting!  Boo ... I need to improve on that because we have been lacking in pictures recently.  Sorry all.

Enough from me, here are the shots from today's 9 month photo shoot ....

Hi Meigs!

9 months old TODAY!

Oh ... and would anyone like some water?

Zach threw his sippy on the floor to bother Meigs, so Tyler pick it up and wanted to drink from both!

38 Weeks Old

By Cyndi

September 6, 2011

I'm not much in the mood to write, as it is cold & rainy out, along with half of my right foot is numb after having an ingrown nail removed this afternoon.  

As we get closer to our 9 month pediatrician visit, I had two goals in mind for the boys:  to sit up and look like they want to crawl.  Sit up, CHECK.  Yup, that's right.  They can both sit up for minutes at a time.  Now, they still topple over randomly, but they are doing great and loving the new toys that they can sit at.  Crawling is very very close.  There has been forward movement, via army crawl, for both, but not consistently.  It is only a matter of time.  Until then, Matt and I will enjoy a few moments of sitting down, since soon we will be chasing them and laughing as Meigs runs away.  

Look at us!!

Huh, wonder what's under here ....

37 Weeks Old & Earthly adventures

By Cyndi
August 29, 2011

Well, I never thought my weekly recap would contain how we "survived" an earthquake and hurricane all in one week.  We are fine and really went about our daily life with no real changes.

Earthquake, Mineral, VA, 90 miles south of where we live, 5.8, 8/23/11, approx 1:50pm:  Earth shook.  We stood still.  Traffic was a nightmare.  Boys napped through it.  Story Over.

Hurricane Irene, Cat 1, 8/26/11, approx 7pm:  Winds picked up slightly, rained for hours, we slept, it moved on.

All right, now that we've covered those details, we are watching Tyler and Zach progress with trying to learn to crawl.  We've seen them both get up on their knees, but come down right after that.  We are also practicing sitting up.  They still need lots of support and pillows next to them if we aren't there to catch them, but they can sit unsupported for 15+ seconds before tipping over.  Usually Matt and I laugh when they slowly tip over.  I will try to catch it on video sometime.

Tyler with his mohawk (sorry it's hard to see)

Zach almost fits into Matt's hat

We fit perfectly!!

Matt had to get in on some swinging action

Turn your volume down before listening ...

36 Weeks Old - wow, 36 weeks flies by ............................

By Cyndi
August 22, 2011

The past few weeks have been busy, but fun.  A few quick updates:

• Still only two teeth and no signs of any more, yet
• Neither can sit up yet unassisted, hopefully soon so they can play with more toys!
• No crawling yet.  They do move backwards and we saw Tyler almost scoot forward over the weekend. Soon we will have moving little ones .... oh no!
• They both LOVE fruit.  Every fruit so far has gone over very well.  Vegetables are going better than before. 

Let's discuss the Dallas trip.  Overall, we had an awesome time.  It was the first "vacation" in over a year for me (sorry but Chicago is not a vacation). Note, the story here does have a point ... read along!

The day before our flights, Matt called me at work and left a voicemail to call him back.  Not totally unusual, but I called back as soon as I could, to find out that we weren't waitlisted for first class, but confirmed.  WHAT?!?  Seriously? Can we sit there holding infants?  Matt earned premier status on United from our flights in 2010 to Vietnam, Chicago, & his 30th birthday trip to Vegas (Reminder to all, I never got a 30th  birthday trip ... I'm getting a 31st trip).  So, Friday came and we had boarding passes in-hand to first class.  It was really going to happen.  The gate agent had to work to reseat people, because again, United (with all of their amazing technology), doesn't realize when doing automatic seating that two infants can't be in the same row.  As we sat in the boarding area, Matt's phone rang and it was work.  He answered and it was his supervisor asking for our flight number.  We boarded, sat down in our cushy seats, and watched the faces of all the others boarding to see two infants in first class.

We got ourselves situated and plugged our earphones in to see if the pilot turned on Channel 9 - Air Traffic Control (unique to United).  We took off and were listening.  About 10 minutes after take off, the pilots were transferred over to Washington Center (where Matt works).  The first frequency gave us direct Little Rock.  I looked at Matt and he made a face that said, well that sounds pretty good.  After we were handed off to the third frequency, the controller said United 562, I have a message for you.  He took care of a few other pieces of business and said United 562, here is the message.  You have one of our controllers on-board.  His name is Matt Alderson, please congratulate him on his engagement.  Matt and I started cracking up.  Matt knew the voice but couldn't figure out who it was at the moment (he later figured it out).  Everyone in first class is wondering why we are laughing.  So we waited to see if the pilot was going to say anything ..... and about 10 minutes later, he came on, gave our altitude, estimated remaining flight time and then said, we must have someone special on board, because we are receiving shortcuts like we've never seen before!  Matt and I enjoyed our dinner & drinks and we landed safely in Dallas, 30 minutes early.  We waited on the plane and told the flight attendants to let us know when our stroller and car seats came up.  We waited, and waited, and waited some more and the plane was empty!  Matt went up to talk to the pilot, since they were waiting with us also, told him that he was the "the special person."  Apparently someone at Wash Center put in the comments of the flight plan that NATCA (ATC union) was onboard.  When the controller gave Matt's name, the pilot looked at the passenger manifest and saw Matt & my name, along with two infants in lap,  and wondered about the engagement part.  The other piece of info we couldn't figure out was how far down the line the shortcut put us.  Matt looked it up later and that location we were given direct to is on the arrival path to Dallas airport.  So, we went direct from IAD to DFW ... a straight line, which never happens!

Our visit was fabulous.  Michael and Ashley's house is huge, we had the 2nd floor to ourselves.  The boys slept well and behaved, not ruining any of their new furniture!  We went to where JFK was shot, enjoyed Michael's extensive beer collection & even had a night out while Ashley's aunt and cousin babysat the sleeping boys.

The flight home was again uneventful and again, we were upgraded to first class!!!  SWEET!!!  Here's some fun pictures from the past few weeks.

PS.  As of this week Thursday, the boys have been breathing air longer than they were cooking .... how fast 36 weeks 3 days goes by!!!

35 Weeks Old - 8 month memories

By Cyndi
August 17, 2011

How has life changed in the past two months ... (here is where they were at 6 months):

• Bottles: We are now feeding 4 times per day, as of two weeks ago. They are averaging 26 oz per day with 4 bottles.
• Schedule: With eating every four hours between 7a & 7p, they boys are napping twice daily for 1.5 hours each.
• Solids: We are feeding two meals per day. Fruit and rice cereal at breakfast and vegetables & fruit at dinner. So far, they are doing great and no allergic reactions to any foods.
• Movement: They love playing on their tummies and have started to scoot backwards. They roll all over and we have cabinet locks ready and gates going up around our house.
• Plagio: Done and Done.
• Clothes: 9 month onesies, at least, 12 month clothes are more the norm. These little guys are long!!
• Diapers: Size 3.
• Fine Motor skills: They are grabbing everything in sight, hair, necklaces, toys, brother's feet, anything they can reach, they try to grab.
• Gross Motor skills: About the same as before, they love jumping all.the.time.
• Reflux: They are still taking Zantac & Prevacid daily.

And for what you really want ... pictures!

Dallas & other happenings to be included in next week's blog post. Later y'all!