Random Pictures

Emma Jane trying on her new bow

Uncle Mark tackling both babies at the same time


Parker just waking up from a nap wondering where in the world she is...

First time in the pool!!

Being held captive in the laundry basket so I can walk away for two seconds

A peek into what makes Emma Jane tick

So this pretty much sums it up right here. This is Emma Jane.


From day one she has been the stubborn-alpha-determined one. Somehow people got the impression that was going to be Parker....but no we never thought she would be. Parker is the monkey. She is the one who likes to fling herself upside down. She is the one who will run across the street without looking first. Emma Jane will be the one who tells her to.
Here is Emma Jane in a nut shell. The girl will be lying there, pounding her feet on the ground (something she likes to do) while sucking quite contentedly on her pacifier when suddenly she will look to her right. And what will she see? Parker, right next to her, also sucking on a pacifier. Suddenly Emma Jane's pacifier is not quite as tasty as it was just a moment ago. So Emma Jane will begin to stare at Parker. After a while she will reach out towards Parker. Finding that she cannot reach her she will begin to butt-scoot her way over until she gets close to Parker. Then she will reach out, grab the pacifier. Emma Jane will then take the pacifier out of her mouth, put Parker's in her mouth, and hold her pacifier next to her mouth...you know...just in case. At about this moment Parker begins to notice she is no longer sucking on anything (it sometimes takes her a couple of minutes. She's a happy baby and spends the first few minutes without the pacifier being amazed that her tongue is suddenly hitting the roof of her mouth. Once this novelty wears off Parker remembers how much fun the pacifier was and begins to fuss. As Parker begins to fuss, Emma Jane gets worried. She's about to be found out. She'll get in trouble. So Emma Jane takes her free hand, reaches over, and puts it into Parker's mouth so that Parker can chew on that instead. Suddenly everybody is happy. Parker just wants something to chew on, and Emma Jane just wants all the pacifiers (binky hog).


As you can see Emma Jane is also getting really good at sitting up. She can do the whole tri-pod sit thing really well now. She can also show her support for the Auburn tigers by wearing my cap. Although, as you can see from the look on her face, she thinks the team has little chance of being great this year.

Now, I must admit that I am a little afraid I have painted Emma Jane in an overly negative light. She is brilliant and wonderful and shows determination, as well as problem solving skills. But none of these qualities have led to her main nickname. Parker is commonly called monkey. Emma Jane...cuddles. The girl loves to cuddle. She will often just raise her arms and stare at you and wait for you to pick her up, and then when you do she will put her head down on your chest.

She even likes to be all squished up to get really cuddly. Kind of like...

...this. This picture was taken last weekend. We were in Chattanooga, and cuddles (also known as whiny butt and variations there off) was refusing to nap. Yet she was exhausted. Finally dad picked her up and she immediately curled up and went to sleep. She had been doing this all the night before. We had driven through the night to get to Chattanooga, so dad was feeling pretty tired himself. This is how mom found them.


content after a nice nap

9 months old/ almost 6 months old

The girls were nine months old on the 30th and will really be 6 months old on June 5th. Its nice and confusing that way...
Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Emma Jane- clearly this book was so boring it put her to sleep

Parker napping- booty up in the air... it was just too cute.

A very tired and sleepy Parker with crazy hair

Reading time with Daddy!!

Yay for great-grandparents and other updates

This past week my grandparents made the long trek from Chattanooga to St. Louis again. It has been so wonderful to have them visit several times now. My grandfather, who is an amazing man in so many ways, made our yard the envy of the neighborhood (before it was definitely the not the prettiest- yard work has been pretty low on the priority list) and got to spend lots of quality time with the girls. My grandmother, a super amazing woman, cooked, cleaned, and helped me with the babies so much. It was WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!! They took Emma Jane and Parker out on the porch and sat with them almost everyday and the girls LOVED it. Jason and I were even able to sneak away for an hour and get some ice cream one afternoon.

Pawpaw and Emma Jane enjoying some porch time

Granny and Parker doing Parker's favorite thing- smiling.

On an unrelated note, Emma Jane rolled/ scooted herself under the couch last week. She stayed there for a good five minutes trying to figure out how to get back out and then she got a teensy annoyed.
And to be equal here are some pictures of Parker enjoying her bathtime duck. Emma Jane likes the duck but Parker loveeeeees the duck.

For those of you curious to know how big the girls are, they are a little over 12 pounds now and about 24 inches long. Emma Jane weighs a little more than Parker, but Parker is longer than Emma Jane making her look even more skinny. We have just now graduated to wearing 3-6 months size clothes, some of which are still too big. They are both beginning to teeth with Parker being the first to have a little bit of a tooth break through. But both have all the signs of impending teeth- drooling, biting EVERYTHING, etc. As Jason eluded to in his last post, eating is still a struggle. For the first few months home, I held out hope that it would get better as did the pediatricians and dietitian. Now we aren't so sure. People have stopped saying, it will get easier in a few months and have now changed their tune to "It will get better when they don't need bottles/ formula anymore". Everyday is a struggle and the girls will unfortunately need some type of breast milk/formula until they are close to an adjusted year old which means close to December. Just thinking about this makes Jason and I want to cry a little, but it is what is best... at least that is what they tell us. We can't live this way forever with this much of a struggle to eat and pray that God will show the girls (and therefore us) mercy sooner rather than later and make them HUNGRY. We are encouraged though that at least they like solid food and hope we can cram it into them and do away with bottles as soon as humanly possible.

But the girls are on track developmentally for their adjusted age. Emma Jane stays consistently ahead of Parker but both are meeting their milestones. Both can roll over from front to back and Emma Jane is very close to mastering back to front. They are working on sitting up on their own, although neither one are currently the biggest fans of it at the current time.

So we have a lot to be thankful for which at least for me is hard to remember some times. I get so caught up in their weight gain and refusal to eat, I become very discouraged and angry. All I have ever wanted is for the girls to be "normal", I think that is what most parents want, but instead life seems to be anything but typical. I compare them to other children who were born full term and are their same age and become even more in the depths of despair. And just when I think I can't take it anymore, I go to work and get a big slap in the face with reality. In my job, on my floor, children die- sometimes my floor can go months without this and sometimes it seems like there is one everyday. It is my job to be a part of the team that saves this child's life and when things don't go as planned it is my job to be with these parents during the worst possible moment of their life. The first few weeks the girls were in the NICU I sat in the room in breath taking fear that I would be one of those parents knowing exactly what would happen if things took a turn for the worst. Praise God they didn't for us, but there are other families that aren't so fortunate. Yesterday I worked right next the child in the bedspace over from my patients died. It was, as always, horribly sad and now these parents who wanted to go home with their baby, instead go home with broken hearts.

And it is those moments, I remember that my children are alive. They may be very small, hate to eat, and may never actually be on a growth chart, but they are alive, happy a good portion of the time, and really really adorable. The first time I actually ever felt the girls move was when I was at work and helping put a dying child into the arms of her mother one last time. It was a very surreal moment as I watched one life slip away and felt two others just beginning. So last night I came home to two crying babies (who had been crying for Jason for about two hours...) and I looked at their red puffy faces and smiled and held them and was thankful.

"If you had one wish, and only one wish, and you couldn't wish for more wishes...what would you wish for?" I wish the babies would...

EAT!!!

eateateateateateat

Mother's Day (a message from the girls)

There really are not words to describe how much we love and appreciate Mary Jane (mom). She takes care of our every need, she is there to love on us when we are fussy, and when we are happy. She is blessed with wisdom and knows how to take care of us even when we go out of our way to make it hard. We truly are the most blessed babies ever.
Thank you doesn't say it well enough...but
thank you.

Food glorious food

So the girls started eating solid food about 6 weeks ago. Fortunately this has gone pretty well which is HUGE since eating really isn't their forte. Their favorites so far are oatmeal and carrots. Parker especially is a solid food fan. This has given Jason and I hope for the future of eating- that one day it will be easier for us...I mean them...

Emma Jane likes the spoon- alot. She gets hurt when you won't give it to her. She likes to feed herself and this is what she looks like when she is done:

And just for kicks her are some super cute pictures of the girls with their first bows thanks to Allison!

I tried to tell them to only wear one bow at a time but they insisted or trying them both on at the same time.