1.20 Hightops exist in infant size 6?!?!!!!

By Cyndi
April 30, 2012

Dare I say, it was a normal week for us??  The guys are somewhat back to normal with eating and we even threw in some extra variety this week and it went well!  Fish, hamburger, grilled cheese, raw apple and all of the normal foods too!

It was recommended to us during the early intervention evaluation to buy the guys hightop shoes to help with their ankle support.  Both of Zach's ankles pronate in and Tyler's right does, so the hightops provide more support and hopefully will help these guys feel stable enough to start walking.  So off Matt went to the mall and came home with these Adidas shoes!

 











Matt and I also went out on Saturday night for our rescheduled date night  ... I was sick with the flu in early March when we had originally planned for it.  My day started at the spa with a facial, mani/ped & makeup, a gift from 2011 anniversary.  We had an amazing dinner at Proof (in DC). First, we made a stop for a drink and tapas (or two) at Zaytinya .... one of our all time favorites.  The last time we were there was with Jason almost a year ago, when they were 24 weeks old.

We enjoyed the chef's tasting menu along with the wine parings.  Hands down, one of the best meals I've had in a long, long time.


The menu ...
Salad of Chilled Cherry Bell Radishes with Snow Peas & Tarragon Mayonnaise
Scottish Salmon with Cauliflower, Snow Peas, New Potatoes & Fennel Cream
Pan Roasted Lamb Tenderloin with Moojudra Pilaf & Garlic-Yoghurt Sauce
Rhubarb & Strawberry Upside Down Cake with Chantilly Cream or Selection of Artisanal Cheeses with Accoutrements

And the wine parings were: Bergstrom (Oregon), Tito (Spain), Voulet (Italian) and two others.

For your weekly enjoyment, a few pictures .....

We are starting to allow them to spoon feed themselves ... this is going to be messy!

Tyler & his dino ... well, his borrowed dino from Linc

Zach learning to get off the step

Definitely our climber

Makeup done, playing with some kids before date night

Catie ... our awesome babysitter who is off to college in the fall

Course #1 at Proof

Practicing going up the stairs ... this time Tyler won!

1.19 A Step in the Right Direction

By Cyndi
April 24, 2012

It has been another busy week in the Alderson house!  We are still recovering from the colds / ear infections, but hopefully within another week, we will be back to 100%.

We flew to Chicago for 48 hours this weekend!  It was a very quick trip but we saw our immediate family, took a quick trip to Purdue to introduce the guys to their future college and saw some friends, the Schwartzs' and their new baby Haddie.   The flight to Chicago was fabulous.  There were open seats next to Matt and I and the guys loved looking out the window.  The flight home was the WORST flight we have had with the guys.  It was right around nap and in the past,  they have slept fine.  Not this time ... we were THOSE people.  They whined, cried, tried to squirm from our arms. It was mentally exhausting and am very glad we don't have to do it again for six more months.

Today the boys had their full evaluation with the county's early intervention program.  We are now on the wait list for services, since the county is lacking funding until the new fiscal year starts in July. They both averaged a developmental age of 11-12 months with a few areas below that and one that is above.  We have some things to work on with them at home and will work to schedule speech therapy and occupational therapy privately soon.

Enjoy some pictures ...

GG and her great grandsons

Outside of where I spent two years straight for grad school ... Grissom Hall

Seth, Tammy & Haddie Schwartz

Uncle Michael with T&Z on GG's cart!

Flight to Chicago ... the boys loved looking out the window

1.18 16 Months ... Nothing normal around here!!

By Cyndi
April 16, 2012


The past week has been rough. I've had one of the worst head colds I've had in years. On Tuesday, Zach showed symptoms for pink eye. It had been over a week since Tyler got it, so I thought we were in the clear. I left work early on Wednesday and slept 5 hours before picking up the guys from daycare. And then on Thursday night, I realized that I got pink eye. I immediately used some of the guys drops. Seriously, as if the head cold wasn't enough ... ugh! I called out Friday to see a doctor and get meds. By mid-day Friday, you couldn't even tell that I had pink eye, but I still sported glasses all weekend long and kept up with the drops. And the fun doesn't end there ...

On Sunday, Zach refused to let me put him down all morning. 24 lbs of a fussy kid, while trying to keep kid #2 entertained was NOT fun. The rest of the day was slightly better, but not their norm and their eating has been off all week. They have been refusing meatball, which has NEVER happened. So off to the pediatrician we went today and guess what, Zach has double ear infections and Tyler has an ear infection in his right ear. So they are now on amoxicillan and my nurse at work put me on antibiotics too. That's 4 times to the pharmacy in the past two weeks for the kids and me.

Learning to stack blocks

Tyler walking around with the truck

Tunnel fun on Sunday

Hopefully all of these sicknesses pass since we leave for our 48hr trip to Chicago on Saturday morning to celebrate Nana's big birthday, see GG & Poppa and take the boys to Purdue for a quick hi on campus and see our friends the Schwartzs' and their new baby girl Haddie.

You think they will let us in Harry's with the guys for a picture?!!?

Here are the 16 month memories:

• Bottles: no change since last update ... 4 sippies, three are WCM (whole cow's milk) & one is 1:4 apple juice to water.
• Schedule: With the transition to the new daycare, they take one nap there and on weekends we are working towards the same.
• Food: This category is so frustrating. They are very picky, won't try new things and even the past week, have been refusing all the foods they used to love (most likely due to ear infections).
• Movement: No walking yet from either, but Tyler seems to be close. When Matt and I are both home, we try to get Tyler to take a step from one of us to the other.
• Clothes: Same Same ... 18-24 month tops &12 month pants (barely)
• Diapers: Size 4 for a little while longer.
• Fine Motor skills: Fine tuning the pinch grasp, but nothing beyond that yet. We are working on stacking blocks and other stacking toys to fine tune hand eye coordination.
• Gross Motor skills: They crawl like speed demons, which makes me wonder if they will ever want to walk.
• Language: No words, just lots of babbling during meals and more often now while they are playing!
• Teeth: Tyler has 10 (top four + 2 molars, bottom four), Zach has the same!
• Interaction: They love to copy each other whining, which is lovely. They play individually, but love to take each others' books or toys they are holding. They both can high five! Now we are working on clapping and pointing.
• Mommy: I'm down a total of 15 lbs since Jan 1st and hoping for another 10lbs over the next few months.
• Daddy: He has been quite busy at work, 6 day weeks though will be coming to an end as May approaches. Hopefully, the extra free time will give him time to run.
• Early Intervention: We are still waiting for the full evaluation by the county (scheduled for next week, with services not even possibly starting until July 1, since they are out of funding), so we are starting Occupational Therapy (OT) privately starting this week. The guys are measuring around 4 months delayed, so we might as well give it a try for two months and see if we see additional progress.

T&Z on the front of a fire truck on Saturday at Fairfax County Touch a Truck

Splashing is fun!

Who wants to sit for pictures??!! :(

And I don't want to forget Meigs ... tired after a long walk!

1.17 Back to Normal ...

By Cyndi
April 11, 2012

Welcome back to your regular weekly blog! I think that might be a record number of posts in a week, but there was so much to share!

A few quick updates:

• No one is walking
• No one is talking (babbling yes, but no words yet)
• No one eats daycare's food (most days)

We have two guys who just love cruising and crawling. Tyler seems fairly close (i.e. walked around Walgreens while holding one finger for a good 5 minutes, while waiting for his pink eye meds) and Zach will walk when temped with keys hanging out of your pocket!

Zach

Tyler

We hosted the Isaacs at our place for 2nd sedar for Passover. Matt worked the evening of first sedar so we didn't do that one. Brisket in the crockpot turned out fine but neither of the guys wanted anything to do with matzah.  We tried again during the week and they "ate" it, mostly sucking the cream cheese off of it!

Yummy matzah pizza!

Here's a few pictures since you've read enough from us over the past week!

It's so European, Part 3: When in Rome ...

By Cyndi
April 8, 2012

We took the train from Florence to Rome and navigated our way to our last hotel of the trip. Rome is triple the size of Florence, at least. We waited a few minutes for our rooms at Hotel Oceania and settled ourselves before we hit the streets for some sightseeing.

Smallest elevator ever -- very European

We saw the changing of the guards at the presidential estate and kept walking. It was tough to navigate Rome as every street went in a non-straight direction and half weren't marked, so almost every block, we had to reference the map. We found the Coliseum and then headed towards the Synagogue. Yup, there's one in Rome too, along with a block of Kosher restaurants, which were very busy because we were there about 4 hours before Shabbat Services.

We made it back to the hotel in time to check email and get our directions figured out for dinner. We headed out early, because if we were to sit at the hotel, we all would have crashed. The non-stop go-go-go was catching up to all of us. We located the restaurant and went looking for a place to have some pre-dinner wine. We found a little square with a  fountain and a little store, bought a bottle, asked the checkout guy to open it, which he did and gave us 4 plastic cups. It was awesome ...

We had a fabulous dinner and headed to the Trevi Fountain. We took a few pictures, threw in our coins and headed to the hotel.

Our last day, we arranged for an all day limo tour. We needed a guide to show us the sights and since we only had one day, we needed to drive to all of them. Let's just say, we saw it all .... Spanish Steps, Coliseum (on the inside), Pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel & the Vatican, and many other sites that I can't remember.

Coliseum

Spanish Steps

Pantheon

Pantheon

St. Peter's Basilica

Swiss Guard at the Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

En route to the Sistine Chapel

En route to the Sistine chapel

Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed, but we had to take one)

Overlook of Rome

Our Last Dinner ...

We woke up on April 1st and headed to the airport. We had slept maybe 5 hours and Mr. Taxi driver was driving like a maniac down streets that the van barely fit. I was thankful when we arrived safely. We checked in, only to find that Matt and I weren't sitting in the same row. Thanks United/Continental merging of computer systems. Once through security, I asked the gate agent about the seat assignments and she said she would page us. We couldn't understand any pages, so as they started boarding business, I went to ask again. I found out that we got our business class upgrade, SWEET!!! When we boarded, we found out we were right behind Michael & Ashley. We had a great, relaxing flight home, hung out in Newark for 2 hours, said our goodbyes to our AWESOME travel companions and made our way home.

It was a perfect vacation. Matt and I needed the time together, since we don't have too much with our different work schedules. Traveling makes me happy. Up next, 5 year anniversary trip with the guys .... South America ... and Southeast Asia. Oh and an African Safari when the guys are older so they can truly enjoy it!


Thanks to Nana & Saba for watching the boys ...... AND making sure we didn't miss the first steps or their first words .... :) Oh and do you want to do it again in 2014? (just kidding ... maybe?!)