Nursery

As of a few weeks ago, this is where both babies finally call home (after Sienna making a delayed move due to her frequent night waking). Looking at these pictures, I can hardly remember what the room looked like when it was Calum's. When we found out we were having twins we went out and bought a matching cot (crib) to Calum's old one and after toying around with a grey and yellow combo, decided in the end to stick with grey and do pink and blue accents since the selection of baby bedding here is leaps and bounds behind what you guys have back home and all we could find that we liked was pink and blue. Otherwise we found some bird pieces-the two birds on the wardrobe, the pillow on the nursing chair and the knobs on the built in wardrobes (which we were going to paint but I keep telling Mark surely that pale wood will come back in one of these days and we might regret it...) and that was that.

The most meaningful piece in the room was sent to us by my Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ken this Christmas. It's the picture of the baby on the small table and the second I opened it, it took me back to my Grandma Britton's house, it hung in the room I slept in as a child and was bought for my Grandma by her mother when my Mom was born in the 1950s. My Mom was born premature like my babies and my great-grandmother told my Grandma she thought the baby looked like her when she was born. It was such a thoughtful gift and so special to have a piece of my history and my family here in our house which is so far from "home".

I was hesitant about the sheep skin rugs at first but they are nice to stand on when changing nappies (diapers) or when peaking in on the babies at night. Putting up the wall stickers will always be a nice memory for me, Mark and I cleverly waited until Calum went to sleep one hot night and I did my best to help waddling around with the step ladder and laying out what seemed like impossible patterns on the floor for Mark to put up as we talked about how different our lives would become when not one but two more babies entered them.

The quote on the wall (came out not so great in pictures), sums it up:

"Hearts entwined,

Twenty fingers, twenty toes....
Two sweet babies with cheeks of rose

Born on the same day, two gifts from above

Lives entwined, two babies to love."

7 months

I think this picture pretty much says it all....

Looking less and less like twins every day

Evan

Sienna

The babies were 7 months old yesterday, the last few weeks have made me feel more like a Mom of twins then ever before with the introduction of solid foods which makes for a lot more work and a lot less time on my hands. It's been a bit of a challenge, Evan went from being my power sleeper to all of the sudden waking again in the night to feed which has got me confused as the two of them are eating almost every two hours...

Looking at Sienna today I feel as if she has literally grown overnight and I remembered again what the sonographer said at my last scan about her being the longer, leaner one and Evan being more stocky and compact. They really couldn't look more different, nothing like twins and barely even like siblings! In this last week I've had lots of comments from strangers and friends and family about just how similar Evan looks to Calum.

Calum continues to dote on his sister, starting every morning by running in to say good morning to Sienna and to give her a "big kiss" (read: smash his face into hers and drool all over her face...). Evan is definitely more the observer, watching Sienna and Calum be loud and crazy and waiting to decide if he wants to join in. As loud as Sienna can be, she is so chilled out and such an easy baby, very rarely crying and making things with two boys much easier on her Mom. Evan is the handsome one, getting lots of attention wherever we go and learning to be as charming as his Daddy. x

Baptised

Sienna and one of her godparents, Tracey

Evan and his godparents, Paul and Rachel

Our crazy family (still working on my twin hold!)

Yesterday was the twins' baptism, a special day not only for them but of course for us, too. Was a a bit reminiscent of my own baptism almost a year ago when I became Catholic and nice for me to be able to appreciate the symbolism and meaning which I probably didn't fully understand when Calum was baptised a couple of years ago.

The ceremony itself went off as well as we could have hoped, with Calum chasing his cousin Max around the pews for most of it and our Father only appearing slightly annoyed that we weren't following as well as we should have, but we survived and it was a very special day.

Thanks so much to Mark's family for making it so lovely; thoughts were with Auntie Dett who is Sienna's godmother, an amazing role model not only religiously but in all areas of life but who was there only in spirit since she's in LA. Feel pretty lucky to have these two in my life and such a great family unit, only wish the rest of my family could have been there, too. x