December

Well we were either extremely brave or stupid, and took the twins to have their first picture with Santa. Kiera fell asleep before Santa and slept right through the whole experience. Dylan was asleep woke up when passed to Santa and he didn’t really seem all that impressed good or bad with Santa so I guess all went well. Could have been much worse and been like Todd’s experiences with Santa. Every picture of Todd with Santa until probably the age of 5 Todd is screaming his head off. I think the twins get their blissful calm from their mother.

This was the first Christmas without Maddy’s Dad who passed away in March 2007. Because of that Todd and Maddy decided to pack up the twins and drive, normally 6 hours, to Northwest Arkansas to visit Madelyn’s grandparents. On the way up there things appeared to go very smoothly with the kids drinking from “hands free bottles” (made for multiples) until it was discovered after arriving in Arkansas that Dylan and Kiera both had only 10 mls. They usually have 4 ounces at each feeding. Needless to say that first night was terrible with them wanting to eat every hour. Todd and Maddy did not get any sleep after a very long drive. Luckily the great grandparents were very willing to hold them all the time so that Todd and Maddy could take shifts on sleeping the next day. As stated before these are great grandparents but Granpa says he is a Great-Great grandpa because there are 2 babies and he only holds them as long as they don’t cry. As soon as one of them cries he hands them off. Wuss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The feeding issue was fixed on the drive back home. After 3 ½ hours on the road Todd pulled over into an empty parking lot. Maddy pulled out the boppy and a nursing cover and fed both - then back on the road. What an experience, never considered that happening a year ago.