Ahead or behind??

It's not even December and I've ordered my Christmas card/birth announcement with shutterfly. Win! However, the twins are already 2 months old today... hmmm...

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Funnoying part 2

Remember THIS post on "Funnoying" things? Well here's part 2!

1. One thing I forgot to mention in part 1 when I was still pregnant:
Person: When are you due?
Me: October 20 is 40 weeks, but twins generally come early, so we're anticipating the end of September or early October.
Person: Oh! My birthday is October 28 (or whatever day), you should shoot for that day!

...Seriously? What part of end of September or early October do you not understand? This actually happened SEVERAL times.

2. I've been thoroughly surprised at how many people have asked us if our twins are identical. Clearly, we have no concept of basic biology, as boy parts and girl bits are quite different! Additionally, if you even take one glance at O & E, they look very different. Sometimes I want to make some snarky remark, but generally end up saying, "Well, they actually can't be identical because one is a boy and the other a girl." Which often times has resulted in an, "Oh really?" {sigh}. A friend of my mother-in-law had twins and she made me laugh when she said that people would ask her if her twins were identical or nocturnal (instead of fraternal). HA! Maybe a little nocturnal. :)

3. When Emma is clearly wearing pink and perhaps even a bow in her hair and people ask me who's who. Granted, we live in a country where men will often wear pink, but still...

4. When people who I don't even know want to touch or hold my children. There was a couple at church that I've never seen before that came up to us and said they wanted a picture of them. No introduction, no real greeting, no hand washing. But they didn't just want a picture of them, they wanted a picture of THEM holding the babies. How do I say no when they are holding their arms out reaching for my preemie-sized babies?  I'm getting better about saying no and asking demanding that people wash their hands. We're starting to be those people that constantly keep their kids in snug baby carriers, practically making them overheat, so that people won't touch them.

5. It's amazing to me just how much attention we get from people because of having twins. I've never been stared at, pointed at, smiled at, or laughed at more in my life. I've also never had so many people hoard around me, particularly at church or school. I've learned that if I have a baby with me, that getting somewhere (even just to go see Mike at school) will take me about 2-3X longer because I constantly get stopped.

6. Many Thai people seem quite concerned with image... if you go to a department store, many of the workers will be off in the corner with a mirror putting on make-up or fixing their hair, etc. Owen had a bit of baby acne for the first month and I felt like so many people had to point that out to me. Additionally, it was often, if not THE first thing that they would say about my little Owen. Not, "What a cute little nose" or "What fluffy hair he has" or "He has really long eyelashes" NOPE... it was always, "He has a rash" or "Can you do something about that?" {sigh} Good thing his cradle cap isn't too bad. Poor boy.

I'm sure these funnoying moment will only continue as they grow, so I'm confident this won't be the last "Funnoying" post.

Mug shot

These are Owen and Emma's passport pictures for the next five years of their life. Every time I look at them, I honestly laugh; Emma with her cute little smirk and Owen with his skeptical and serious face.

These pictures portray their personalities well, we think. From what we can tell... Emma is more outgoing and social. She loves face time, she smiles easily (and has from the beginning), coos a lot & adores being held. As you can tell, Emma, AKA "chubba cheeks" also loves her food . :) She is a champ of a nurser, but a horrible burper. We've been starting to give her gripe water (water with sodium bicarbonate and dill weed oil), which has helped her burp better and not be fussy by the end of the day (when all the gas accumulates).

Owen is our serious little man. He is harder to get a smile from (I know it's still early... I guess Emma is just an overachiever in the social arena) and I feel like every photo I snap of him, he has this slightly disgruntled, serious, or skeptical look on his face. He is a very content baby though and hardly ever cries. He is a horrible nurser... he likes to bite with his gums and whip his head from side to side while he snorts (we affectionately call him "snorty face") for a good 10 minutes before settling down to eat, and then he takes his sweet sweet time eating. He does this when fed by a bottle too, though not quite as much.

Mike and I joke about the difference between having a boy an a girl... Owen really only cries about 4 things: a dirty diaper, when he wants to be swaddled, is hungry, or when Emma the bully punches him in the face. Emma is more high maintenance. She cries when she's scared, when you don't quite have her in the right position, if her swaddle is too tight or too loose, when her swing stops moving, if she isn't being held, when she's hungry, if she can't see your face, if you're not laying close enough to her etc. etc. It's so interesting how two little beings that are raised in the same environment who are getting the same treatment, the same food, have the same parents etc. are so very very different. I love it.

They are sleeping well. I was scared by other parents into thinking that I'd only get an hour or so of consecutive sleep. I prayed for children that sleep well... and already at 6 weeks old, they are often doing 4-5 hour stretches at night. And since they are more or less on same schedule, most of that is overlap! We don't feel as sleep deprived as we thought we would, especially with twins. We've really been blessed.

Life is great. We love being parents and are having a lot of fun!

More pics and less words in the next post or two. :)