General Pruetz Goofiness

I will admit, up front, that nothing special is happening around here. But I've gotten a few good photos of the girls in the past couple of days, so I thought I'd just go ahead and put them up and write about the not-so-exciting things going on in our lives.

Today is the first of the months, which marks the girls' monthly Synagis shots to help ward off RSV. So I piled Faith and Grace into the family van and headed to the Medical Center. While in the elevator, going up to the third floor, a woman stepped on with her newborn baby boy. She looked at my girls and said, "They're so cute! They are about the same size as my boy. Are they about two months, too?" I just laughed. It was funny to see her expression and the expressions of everyone else in the elevator when I said, "No, they're eight-and-a-half months."

I forget just how small they are for their ages.

At the doctor's office, we did get a weight check and Faith is weighing in at just over 14 lbs and Grace at just over 15 lbs. If I'm reading the chart correctly, that puts Faith still below the chart and Grace right around 5% (meaning that 95% of all babies her age weigh more than she does). So they're still little nuts.

But they are developing just fine! They're both pretty adept at sitting up, although if we put them in the living room rug, we often support them with the Boppies because under the rug is hardwood floor which hurts a LOT if toppling occurs.

The girls can also move! They both get up on all fours and rock back and forth, but now they're really starting to get around. Faith does in the inchworm method, where she moves both hands out in front of her at the same time and then drags her legs behind her. Grace hasn't quite gotten that yet, although she does go backwards very well. It's pretty funny, although it frustrates the heck out of her.

Devin has been living with the sniffles this week and we've kept him inside, wondering if it's allergies or an infection. So far, no fever (the thermometer read 99.5 today, but I think it may have been a fluke) and we're all getting pretty tired of having to entertain him all day without letting him go outside. I think he's ready to be paroled. I know I am ready for him to be paroled.

And finally, tomorrow, February 2, marks the one-year anniversary of our finding out that the girls were monoamniotic/monochorionic. In so many ways, this has been the longest year of my life and yet, in others, it's all gone so fast. I just remember the despair and devastation I felt as I called friends and family after my three hour ultrasound. It was horrible to have to report the news over and over again. Thiat was right around the time this blog became so important -- I hated rehashing and rehashing each detail over and over again, so I just doled out my blog address to everyone who asked.

I look at my angels now and think, "Holy cow -- look what you all have been through, and you're not only a year old." It's a daily lesson in faith and community to me and I hope to never forget everyone who helped bring my daughters into the world.

If I haven't said it in awhile...Thank you.

Here are some photos to make you smile. I know they have that effect on me.

Here is Faith "riding" Devin's battery-powered motorcycle, held up by Todd's mom, Dorothy. We love this photo because, no matter what she is doing, that's her expression. It's hysterical!


We gave Devin our old digital camera to play around with. We've gotten some fabulous shots of the camera strap, the floor, his thumb, and the ceiling. Notice the stains on his shirt -- he is all boy.


The girls playing with their newest toy (courtesy of Devin's old toy box). It's backwards this time, though, with Grace on the left and Faith on the right


I snapped this just because I thought Faith looked adorable, just sitting there, playing in her crib. She had just come from the tub and had that "fresh-picked baby smell."