Christmas Video and Quick Update

The babies are doing terrific and finally made it to the 20 pound mark. We were able to change out their car seats. I think they LOVE looking forward. I got a bunch of smiles this morning even while they were distracted by NEMO.

Michael is so close to walking, I just dont think he trusts the floor yet. He really could do it if he wanted (he is such a boy). Emaleigh is really starting to look "up", she realized that there are things above her and she wants to touch everything.

Michelle made a video of pictures from the past year which turned out amazing. I am posting a link here and below for you to see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdNkWLuVKFM  

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and we will be posting an update soon.

December Update

We had their picture taken with Santa and they did terrific, I thought Michael would cry for sure. He suprised all of us!
Emaleigh and Michael are doing terrific developmentally and we've moved into almost all "toddler food". We're still doing 3 milk bottles a day for Michael and 4 for Emaleigh. We'll eventually move Michael down to 2 and Em down to 3 but we're worried about her calorie intake.

Out of curosity I weighed both babies thinking that they both were over 20 pounds... nope! Michael weights 19.11 and Emaleigh weighs 19.8. She caught him. I guess the powder breakfast mix in her milk is bulking her up. Finally!

I will be posting a few new videos of the babies from this week soon.
  1. Em waving for the first time on camera (sideways)
  2. Em on the Hyannis ferry with her diaper trick
  3. Michael in Storms bed (ugh it's very hairy)
  4. The mommy monster playing with her little monster
  5. Michael finding a new way to walk with his walker.

The surgery went well - Michael is doing great

We've had a busy November! Emaleigh's surgery went well - if you are interested in more details, go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/EmaleighBlankenship.

Both Emaleigh and Michael are doing great and we're almost back to normal. They are both a little needy but I think that's understandable with what has been going on :).

Emaleigh is almost back to normal with standing and walking aaround things but she's trying to figure it all out again. I think her feet feel different now.

What are they doing and saying?

• Both babies are waving hi and bye and know what it means.
• Michael says hi when waving.
• Michael is trying to say yum when he eats.
• They know up and know what to do when I say... "I want that".
• Kisses - they know kisses and give them when asked. The only difference is Michael gives "tongue" kisses.
• They fight over toys, we all expected that :)
• They both walk around the coffee table but go down when they let go. I'm sure they'll walk when they are ready
• We're moving over to whole foods. Emaleigh is doing great and knows to bite the cheese doodles but Michael wants to put the whole thing in his mouth.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks and I have a video of Michael saying "hi" and Emaleigh crawling in her big pink casts below :)



The Blankenship's minus 1 in Maine



Getting kisses on the beach in Maine

Em loving in the seagulls in Hyannis MA

 she looks double jointed - putting a diaper over her head

A Blankenship baby update 10/24/10

We have had a another great week. Getting everything together for surgery is finally done and we can take a breather for once. Well kind of! :) Chris and I need to get our desks straight at work. I'm debating on how we will work out housing with Em's surgery. Basically we have a host family that will allow us to stay with them and we were approved for family housing 3 blocks away. I know most of my time will be with Emaleigh in the hospital but I will need to rest as well. Debating on what is going to work best for us. I'm sure the host family house will be much more comfortable!

This week:

• we had 1 year check-up with shots and flu shots too. Poor Emaleigh had additional RSV shots.
• Michael started clapping or playing patty cake (The video is below)
• Michael started shaking his head no (The video is below)
• Emaleigh started walking with her walker (The video is below)

We're still doing stage 3 food and a few milk bottles a day. Keep in mind Michael and Em have 3 teeth (Em has 3 more breaking through now), so we are worried that they aren't ready for solid food.

Michael weighs 17.8 pounds and he is really eating a lot so we think we are on another growth spurt. Emaleigh  was 17.2 pounds. Dr McCurley told us to wait until the babies are 20 pounds to even think about changing their car seats out.

We are set for Halloween too! Next Monday we ship out with Em, Ashleigh, Victoria and maybe Owen. Michael and Storm (and our other critters) will stay here with Grama and Granpa.

I'm sure that I'm missing something. If so I'll post another update!

Love,
 Adrienne

Happy 1st Birthday Em and M!!!

We had a terrific party yesterday (even though some made fun of the timing for my agenda) ;) Emaleigh and Michael did wonderful and had a blast. Here are some pics! Thank you, to everyone that helped us celebrate our little miracles! 

 

Baby Update - 6 day's until Em and M are 1!!!

Emaleigh and Michael are doing terrific. The will be 1 in 6 days!!!

Both are:

*getting around very well and are pretty quick too!

*would rather play on the floor then getting in the bouncers.

*holding their own bottles

*on whole milk - the formula was recalled (because of bug parts) ew...

*teething - they have a bunch of teeth coming in:

            *Em - eye teeth (no front top yet) & bottom

            *M - top right teeth and bottom  

* ready for Halloween

            *Em will be a ladybug

            *M will be a chicken

*doing great gaining weight

            *Em is 16.8 pounds and 26 and 1/2 inches

            *M is 17.9 pounds and 27 and 1/2 inches

*We have the Mickey Mouse cake ordered and ready for pick up on Friday for the birthday party! 

 *babbling and talking up a storm. Mostly DaDa and BaBa (they've already done the MaMa thing)

*We're getting some pictures done on Saturday morning for their year pictures before the party.

On a small surgery note - Everything is almost all set for November 3rd. We just need to schedule the Urology appointment and see if they are willing to do a full body MRI. Now that we know her kidney's are misshapen, we want to make sure all other organs are ok.

Childcare and Development

Hi!

Emaleigh and Michael are doing terrific.

Michael

Is cutting his first top tooth today and is kind of cranky. He was also up at 3:40 this morning (not sure why) but we were able to get him settled down and back to bed by 4:30. He is doing terrific with moving around the house and is quite fast.

Emaleigh

Here upper tooth is finally through and she is cranky today too. Michael woke Em up at 3:40 too, so that was a treat. Emaleigh is crawling!! She's still slow but knows that she can get around now. She is also pulling up on things like a pro. She still has some difficulties with her larger leg and getting around when sitting/crawling but she's adapting.

We're also working with social services and medicaid to get child care help with Em but not sure how that will work out. Basically they told us that a provider can watch Emaleigh but not Michael during the dedicated 5 hours a day. I'll be talking to the case worker to see what we can do. I'll keep you posted.