As the Stomach Churns...

Why the title? Because it seems I'm living in a soap opera, that's why.

Just as the twins finished their antibiotics for ear infections and Devin neared the end of his antibiotics (which, by the way, were so "heavy duty" that our pharmacist told us not to pour it down the sink because it could harm the ecosystem. And I'm putting this in my child's body???), I thought to myself, "Well maybe we'll all be healthy for awhile."

I'm here to warn you: Don't tempt the fates.

Around 10:30 yesterday morning, I took the girls upstairs for their morning naps. As I was coming downstairs to get some work done and spend time with Devin, I misjudged our stairs and took a spill. I slid down a couple of steps (three or four at most) and landed on my bottom without much grace (the virtue, not the child). In the process of doing this, though, I also twisted my right ankle in a way that made it make a crunching noise so loud it echoed.

I yelled. Loudly. Not only out of pain, but out of fear, too. I sat on the stairs and screamed out for a few seconds before I told my very frightened toddler to please bring the me phone. I was panting from the pain and I was very lightheaded, but I managed to call Todd. When he picked up, all I could say was, "Todd, come home. I think I broke my ankle." I hated to look at my ankle, but I did and I was shocked to see how swollen it had gotten so quickly.

My fantastic husband hopped into his car and headed home. At that moment, the phone rang. I saw that it was my friend, Sheena, and I picked it up and told her what was going on. She helped to calm me down and Devin, being the precious little thing that he is, brought me his "boo boo ice pack" from the fridge. I hobbled to one of our living room chairs and sat down. I called my neighbor, Susan, and asked if she could watch the kids while Todd took me to the emergency room. She immediately came over and soon after she arrived, my doorbell rang again. This time, it was my friend Leslie. Leslie had apparently talked to Sheena who had told her what was going on with me. Leslie was in her car, so she rushed over to make sure I was taken care of as I waited for Todd to come home.

You know how I talk all about how I have such incredible friends? This is a perfect example. Susan has three kids, Sheena has three, including a newborn and Leslie has three, also, with a six-month-old. These women are busy with their own lives, but they dropped what they were doing to make sure I was okay. How could I ask for more?

Anyway, Todd got home and we trekked to the emergency room. By the time we got in there, I was feeling pretty sick to my stomach and even a little faint, so I was taken into a room very quickly. Vitals were taken and I was taken in for three x-rays.

Turns out my ankle was not broken, although it was very severly sprained. I was sent home with some Vicodin and a big, ugly brace.

The ankle is still pretty swollen -- in fact, it's more swollen today than it was yesterday. And it hurts pretty badly. I'm a little concerned, truth be told...I've never had a sprain feel this painful.

The weekend goes on from there when we headed to Todd's hometown of Yoakum for their annual Tom-Tom Festival. In my next post, I'll write more about the festival and my not one but two puking incidents in the car ride there.

Sounds like something to really look forward to, huh?

A soap opera. I'm telling you. But you can't make this stuff up...my life is way better than fiction!

Have a great rest of the weekend...

E

Old Friends, New Friends

We have had the best week! On Tuesday, my good friend, Christi, and her son, Connor, came into town. Christi and I have been friends since the 8th grade (which we calculated was 18 years ago...how is that possible? Aren't I only 22 years old? Oh, I'm not?) and while we lost track of one another during college, we reconnected last year and realized that, even after all these years, we still have so much in common, including our three-year-old sons and reciprocal memberships at the Houston and San Antonio zoo.

And all of those points-in-common meant one thing: Road Trip.

Connor and Christi made their way from Houston to San Antonio, arriving in the Alamo City around 2:00 on Tuesday. We introduced the boys and while they got to know one another and play, Christi and I caught up on life in general. We email all the time and saw one another back in November, but there's nothing like being able to sit down on the couch and just talk.

That evening, Todd got home from work and Christi, Connor, Devin and I departed for our double date. We drove downtown to the Riverwalk and decided to party like rock stars -- we dined at the Hard Rock Cafe.

After dinner, we took a walk along the river and took a boat tour of the Riverwalk.

It was late, so we headed home to get a good night's sleep before our big day at the zoo the following day.

We woke up Wednesday morning and had breakfast - my very special Mickey Mouse waffles (this is where Christi said to me, "You all have a Disney problem around here, don't you? I love it!" She really is a girl after my own heart...). My across-the-street neighbor came to babysit Faith and Grace and the four of us were off again for another adventure.

Our zoo membership served us well as we just waltzed in without having to stand in line. Christi and Connor got in for 1/2 price because of their affiliation with the Houston zoo. Not too shabby!

We spent the day oohing and ahhing over all sorts of great animals -- from the pink flamingos and grizzly bears, to the bigest Gila Monster you've ever seen and a tent full of butterflies (Devin did not like that much...he asked to leave. Oh, and ZZ, beware...there is a picture of a big, blue butterfly below).

Christi even bought the boys some temporary tattoos...they thought they were the coolest.

We returned home hot, sweaty and hungry, so we had lunch and the boys played outside.

But all good things must come to an end and Wednesday afternoon, Christi and Connor left to return to Houston to see the rest of their family -- husband and daddy, Shawn, and brother and son, Foster.

We just had the best time. It was great to catch up with Christi and to see our little boys playing so well together was like seeing the circle of life complete itself. Christi and I were friends as kids and now our kids are friends. It was pretty amazing.

Here are some photos from our adventure. Christi is quite the scrapbooker and therefore sees photo opportunities that I would otherwise miss. Thanks for the fun, you two! We can't wait to come see you all!

The boys meet and hit it off immediately


Heading out for our double date


Connor and Christi at the Hard Rock Cafe. Dinner would not have been complete without swash-buckling hats and swords


The boys at the river. Check out Connor's awesome pants. I am going to run out and buy some for Devin. I love them!


At the bear exhibit at the zoo


It would have been better if we could have seen Connor's adorable smile, too, but I couldn't resist posting this one because Devin just looks so cute!


Connor and a gorgeous butterfly. I love this photo...


The boys on the giant Gila Monster sculpture. The live one we saw inside was roughly this big!



We found a really cool pathway of rocks over water! The boys thought it was great!


My tough guy


Connor's a tough guy, too!


Connor's bad-bottom face (c'mon...this is a family blog! What did you expect me to say?)

The Saga of the Size Nine-and-a-Half Foot...

Yes...it continues.

Yesterday, Devin spent most of the day in a Benadryl-induced nap. He dutifully kept his foot up on a pillow and I thought the swelling and redness were going down. I even felt confident enough to go over to my friend Meliza's house to practice for Mass on Sunday (I'm singing this weekend, soloing for the first time since high school. Wish me luck -- I'm nervous!). When I got home, Dev was still up, so I checked on his foot. I was astonished to find that the redness had spread a good half-inch to inch all the way around his foot. I'm no doctor, but I know this isn't good.

So I called Dr. Trexler (thank goodness she was on call last night) and she decided that Devin needed to go to the Emergency Room. I packed the munchkin, along with his favorite stuffed animal and his Buzz Lightyear toy, into the car and headed to the brand new pediatrics emergency room at our local hospital. I was very impressed! The place was awesome.

We were immediately taken to triage and then back to a room. Dr. Trexler had already called in to give them instructions for Devin, so it didn't take long for us to be seen by a doctor. He determined that we'd do just one round of IV antibiotics and be able to go home, barring only bad results from Devin's blood tests like a high white cell count or something of the sort.

Two nurses arrived to put the "straw" in Devin's arm. He was none-too-happy to be poked again and while he did scream bloody murder, he did not move an inch. He stayed perfectly still and they got the IV in easily. Then started the drip and we settled down to watch TV on the flat-panel, HDTV screen in our room. I told you this place was nice!

The drip lasted about 30 minutes and while we were relaxing together, the doctor informed us that D's white cell count was normal, meaning the infection was still localized just to his foot. That was the first good news I'd heard all day.

We finished the drip, signed our discharge papers and headed home.

This morning we saw Dr. T again and she's happy with the progress the foot-in-question is making. It's still a little red and swollen, but not like it was last night. We're going to continue on the oral antibiotics and keep an eye on it this weekend. Here's hoping against hope.

Of course, while were at the doctor's office, I noticed that Gracie had some red splotches on her neck. I looked into her onesie and saw hundreds of them all over her tummy. My question here was, "Are you kidding me???"

Luckily, Cheryl walked into the room and after she was done, she looked at Grace and determined that the viral infection she had was one that causes a high fever for three or four days and then manifests as a rash on the tummy and back. She had the classic sypmtoms and, luckily, there is no harm in this. In fact, by the time the rash shows up, it means that the period of time for being contagious is over. Whew!

So here's to hoping that we'll stay away from the doctor's office, the ER and other medically associated destinations. It will be nice to just "be" for awhile.

Have a happy, fun and safe Memorial Day weekend.

The Drama Continues...

Thought you'd heard the last of illness in the Pruetz house? Think again.

Yesterday was the girls' 12-month check up. Faith had started to feel better, but Gracie was in the middle of being as pathetic as any baby ever has. Sure enough, we spent a few minutes doing the check up stuff, like deveopmental milestones, height, weight, head circumference, etc. And then we moved onto the biggest problem at hand: infected ears and major fevers. I told our doctor about Faith's trips to the ER and to Good Night Pediatrics and about how only 24 hours later, Grace too came down with all the same symptoms.

Cheryl confirmed that there is indeed some nasty virus going around and that it was likely that both girls had caught it. She took a peek in Faith's ears to check on the status of the antibiotic. She said that Faith's ear drums were bulging, ready to burst, and that obviously, the Augmentin was not working. She looked at Grace's ears and while they were looking much better, they too seemed to be on their way to infection. So it was a new antibiotic for Faith and a first round for Grace. We went home with instructions to alternate Tylenol and Advil to keep Grace's fever down and to come back in a month to recheck height and weight (there was some concern that they are still so small, but their lack of recent weight gained may be due to the virus) and get their one-year shots. What fun!

Looking forward to getting back to normal, the three Pruetz girls returned home to greet Todd's sister, Jill, her boyfriend, Tom and Devin. It was great to see my doodlebug again.

I got to hear all about Devin's horseride in Concan and the slip he took on the rocks along the river's edge. He even showed me the cut in the webbing of his toes on his right foot. He was very proud of his war wound, but did complain that it hurt. I put some Neosporin on it and gave him some Advil for the pain. He ran off, seemingly fine.

This morning, he woke up complaining of the same thing. "My foot hurts," "It's hard to walk..." I took a look at the foot and, again, nothing was wrong. More Neosporin, more Advil. All was well.

But not really.

An hour later, I just happened to glance down at Devin's foot. It was enormous. It was swollen on top and around the toes. Jill also expressed concern because she had looked at it only an hour or so before, too, and it had seemed to have nothing wrong with it.

So off we went to Dr. Trexler's office. Again.

Cheryl walked in and laughed with me about how the Pruetz family is keeping Stone Oak Pediatrics in business. Devin took of his shoe for Dr. T and I was shocked -- it had suddenly become bright red and was starting to have striations around it. I looked at Cheryl and she did not look pleased.

She poked at Devin's foot, squeezed it and even had to touch at the wound (he did not like that). She drew a line around the red area to see if it would spread and how fast.

Then she broke the news: This was going to need some heavy-duty antibiotics, starting with a shot. Devin was not pleased to hear this.

After the doctor left the room, I talked to Devin about what was going to happen and why. He became very weepy and said he didn't want the shot. I asked him why and he said, "Becuase if I have to pull down my pants, everyone will laugh." Oh it just broke my heart -- my baby showed his first signs of embarassment regarding his "private" parts.

The nurse soon came in and I started to help D pull his shorts down. He fought and fought and fought me and when I finally got them down, he curled up in a ball and refused to get up on the table. I had to put him up there, get him on his tummy and sit on him to allow the nurse a good shot of his rear end (no pun intended).

And then the screaming commenced. It was so loud it reverberated off the walls. It made my ears ring. It was one of the loudest noises I have ever heard.

After a lot of struggle, the shot was administered and immediately a blue bruise popped up. The nurse brought an ice-pack and a popsicle for Devin. So there stood my little boy, shorts around his ankles, Superman underwear pulled down past one little red cheek and while I held ice on the site of the shot, the Doodlebug sucked on an a frozen confection. Can you imagine anything more pathetic? It was pretty sad.

Before we left, we were told that we would need to return tomorrow to see Dr. T again, in an effort to make sure that the antibiotics were working well. If they were not, Devin would need to be admitted to the hospital for IV drugs.

I'm happy to report, as my little guy snoozes on the couch, that the foot is already looking better. We haven't even picked up the oral antibiotic yet, but the redness has gone away and the swelling is going down. Devin was told to keep his foot up all day and stay in bed or on the couch. I told Cheryl, "Tell me another!"

I did give Devin some Benadryl, though, for the welt the shot left, and that put him down for a pretty good nap. He has his foot propped up on a pillow, so I guess we're doing pretty well, despite the difficulty my little one has with sitting still.

I'll post a report here tomorrow on the status of the puffy foot.

Me

A Baby No Longer...

Last Saturday, May 19, my twin girls turned one year old. On that day, one year prior, they were born by urgent c-section and whisked away to the NICU where they would be diagnosed with heart problems and a staph infection. In the NICU they leared the things that we take for granted every day -- how to breathe, how to eat, how to maintain their body temperatures.

They spent five weeks there and came home at barely five pounds each and attached to heartrate and breathing monitors that went with us everywhere. Luckily, we didn't go too many places because we were told to keep them home for awhile and Todd, Devin and I all settled into a routine of very little sleep and learning how to deal with constant crying.

Slowly, the girls settled down. The crying 18 hours out of the day decreased to 12 and then five and so on. The babies went from sleeping two hours at a time to sleeping five hours and then seven and eight. They started solid foods and learned to drink from a sippy cup. They rolled over, sat up, crawled, pulled up and cruised. Just this weekend they started standing on their own. Soon, walking will commence. Then running.

In a way, this has been the longest, most difficult year of my life. I've worried constantly about illness and over-exposure to germs and bacteria. I've lost sleep, wondered how I'd make it through the day and have stressed about the future. Everything from the first day of Kindergarten to shopping for prom dresses has crossed my mind and brought tears to my eyes.

I've also stressed about this year of anniversaries. The anniversary of finding out we were pregnant. The anniversary of finding out we were having twins. The anniversary of the twins having only a 30% survival rate. The anniversary of my admission to the hospital and the annivesary of my very small, very fragile girls being born. Every milestone brought back memories of the stress and emotion that ruled our lives this time 365 days ago.

In a completely different way, though, this has been the most amazing and fastest year of my life. My girls -- my flesh and blood -- were brought into this world by a community of friends, family and complete strangers. My faith was strengthened, as was my relationship with Todd. I grew closer to my family and I learned a love that I didn't know could exist. It's a different love than that I feel for Devin -- it's no less or no more intense, but it's different. I look at Faith and Grace with awe, wonder and a humble heart. I wonder what I did to deserve them, yet I know that I won't get an answer until I die.

I can remember everything about the twins' birth, hospital stay and homecoming like it was yesterday. I recently ran across the dresses they wore home from Methodist Hospital and it was a reminder to me just how far they've come.

So, according to the medical community, my now one-year-olds are no longer babies. They are toddlers, even if they aren't quite toddling yet.

But they are still my babies, in just about every sense. They are still so tiny and so baby-like. I get lots of looks when we go places because no on has ever seen a six-month-old pull up and cruise around furniture. I have to tell them that they are much older than they look.

They'll always be my babies, too. I'll always hold them a little tighter and a little closer, not only because of their remarkable and scary journey, but because they are my youngest. They'll always be babies.

Moving On...

This weekend we celebrated Faith and Grace's first year by going to Concan, TX on the Frio River. This is an out-of-the-way, tiny little town that sits right along one of the most scenic waterways in Texas. Todd and his family have been going there since he was four years old. We stayed at Neal's Lodges, also a family tradition in the Pruetz family. Todd's parents arrived with us on Saturday and Todd's sister, Jill, and her boyfriend, Tom, joined us yesterday (Sunday).

The trip wasn't without incident, though.

Todd, myself and the kiddos arrived at Cabin 21 before the rest of the family. I reached into the back and got Faith out of her carseat. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. She was burning up.

We got all of our "stuff" into the cabin and I found my digital thermometer. I took Faith's temperature and it read, "103.1."

Now when I mentioned that Concan is out-of-the-way, I meant it. It's nowhere near any large cities and we were at a loss for where to go or what to do.

Luckily, Todd's parents showed up soon after and advised us to take our little girl into the closest town-of-significance, Uvalde (pronounced you-VAL-dee). You may have heard of this town, as a man by the name of Matthew Mcconaughey makes reference to it every chance he gets -- he grew up there.

So Todd and I left Gracie and Devin with my in-laws and we trekked 25 miles to the Uvalde Memorial Hospital Emergency Room. Luckily, we were seen quickly and Faith was diagnosed with a double ear infection. We were given a prescription and instructions for care and we headed back to Neal's Lodges.

What a way to spend your first birthday, huh?

Back at the cabin, Todd's mom, Dorothy, had prepared a little party for the girls. Princess plates and napkins, a cake and some toys. It was very special and while Gracie dived into her cake like any self-respecting kiddo on her birthday, Faith dumped the cake on the floor in an effort to chew on her plate. She was totally unimpressed with the confection before her. I had to wonder, "Is this really my child?"

We continued alternating Tylenol and Advil through the night, trying to make Faith feel better. Her fever would seem to break and then come back with a vengence.

By Sunday afternoon, though, Faith really took a turn for the worse. She stopped eating and her fever wouldn't respond to any of the medications we gave her. About 8:00 last night, Todd and I decided I should take her home to see her own doctor while Todd and Devin stayed behind. I promised Todd that I would come back on Tuesday to retrieve him. Devin will return on Wednesday with Jill.

I left one of the car seats with Todd, just in case, and made the two-hour trek back to San Antonio. We arrived in our neighborhood around 10:00 and I decided to go directly to Good Night Pediatrics -- an after-hours pediatrician's office. This place is a God-send if your kids are like mine, who only get sick on the weekends or after 5:00 pm.

We were seen by a doctor very quickly and sure enough, Faith's ears were really infected. On top of that, it seems that there is a viral infection going around that is causing high fevers, decreased appetite and lethargy and Faith managed to get it, too.

Of course, there isn't anything that can be done for a viral infection, so while the trip was peace-of-mind for me, we didn't get any new information on my poor, sick girl.

So my baby slept all night long and napped all morning. Around noon, I got a phone call from Todd who said, "Grace has a 102 fever. Dad is driving us home." Thank goodness I left that car seat...

Sure enough, Gracie just isn't herself. She's not interested in eating, either (a big deal for her, since we sometimes fear that if she gets hungry enough, she may eat her sister), and is just kind of a slug. I guess we'll just wait for this to run its course with her, too. I'm wondering when Devin will get it.

Todd and Grace got here just fine and Todd's dad immediately turned around. After he left, I asked Todd why he didn't go back with his dad and he told me that he didn't want to leave me with two sick babies. I told him that this is when they are they easiest -- they sleep all the time. I urged him to go and he did.

So tonight, it's just us girls. I bathed Faith and Grace and had some play time with them. I put them down and am now enjoying some, "Erin time." It's nice, but I don't think I'd want this all the time. I miss my boys.

Well, this has been quite a post. I hope you had a snack nearby, because surely this took you some time to read. Thanks for bearing with me.

Take care and watch out for that virus -- it's a biggie.

E

Pruetz Family Goings On

I don't really have anything specific to write about -- just some fun little stories about the craziness we call the Pruetzes.

On Saturday night, we had some friends over for a dinner party: The Sauters, the Schaefers and the Miceks. They all brought their kids (seven in total, including my three) and we had a fantastic time drinking, watching the Spurs game and talking while the kids were up to no good upstairs.

And when I say up to no good, I mean up to no good. We knew they were playing and being loud and doing some strategic rearranging of our upstairs bedrooms. They're all good kids, so we didn't do much checking.

Luckily, they are good kids and no permanent damage was done. But imagine my surprise when, after the party, I walked into my bathroom to see every single toy Devin owns in our bathtub. And when I say every single toy, I mean it. Every toy. The shelves in his room and his toy chest were completely empty. Hundreds of Hot Wheels, stuffed animals, Disney action figures and miscellaneous paraphernalia was piled into my garden-sized tub. If I had stood in the middle of the bathtub, the mound would have come to my knees. No joke.

But who could be mad? It was totally revocable and the kids had a blast. We weren't mad in the least, although I could kick myself for not taking a photo before we cleaned it all up.

The next day was Mother's Day and my only request from Todd was that I would have a day of doing nothing. And while that's nearly impossible with three kids, I was given the best possible "do nothing" day. Todd fed the kids and put them down for naps and did stuff around the house while I relaxed. It was a great day.

It brought back lots of memories of last year's Mother's Day, when I was released from the hospital for a few hours to celebrate the day with Todd and Devin. I returned to room 142 having contraction after contraction. My doctor told me that we wouldn't be able to do any more day passes because of it, but little did I know that the next time I would return to our home, I would be a mother of three. The babies were born the Friday following Mother's Day.

As we approach the twins' first birthday this Saturday, I have a lot of weird feelings. 99% of them are good, but 1% of them are memories of the very scary first few weeks of their lives. I look at my babies and think, "They almost weren't. They shouldn't be." But they are. And I am humbled daily.

Getting back on track...

Yesterday, the kids and I took a trip to the San Antonio Zoo. Our city has one of the top-ranked zoos in the country and now that I have the time to do so, I plan on taking the kids there often. We even bought a family membership which provides us all with free admission for a year.

And going to the zoo here in San Antonio isn't like it was when I lived in Houston. In a city the size of Houston, going to the zoo was an all-day event. There was the hour drive downtown, the ridiculous parking situation and the crowds that flock to Hermann Park (where the zoo is located) every weekend. If you left at 10:00 a.m. and stayed for four hours, you'd leave the park just in time to hit rush-hour traffic. It was a no-win situation.

But in a city the size of San Antonio, getting to the zoo is no big deal. A 20 minute drive, free parking and free admission. You can stay an hour or two and go home without feeling like it was time or money wasted.

So anyway, we went with my friend Erin and her son, Colin, who is Devin's age. The boys had a great time running from exhibit to exhibit and they were thrilled by the wild animals, giant fish and various primates (that's for you, Aunt Jill. Otherwise, they'd all be referred to as monkeys!).

Here's the kicker, though...

When we got to the lion exhibit, one of the male lions was sitting close to the viewing area, but with his back turned. Devin took to making some noises at him...first a few soft roars, then a louder roar. Then he made his now-patented flamingo noise (learned from the flamingo exhibit at the front of the zoo).

When that didn't get the lion's attention, Devin took to a flat-out scream. A loud, high-pitched, can-hear-it-from-a-mile-away scream.

Note to self and all others: Lions do not like loud, shrill screams from little boys.

Apparently, Devin's voice caught the lion's attention because as soon as the noise left my child's mouth, the lion whipped his head around at lightening speed and stared directly at Devin.

Now this wasn't just some, "Hey kid, what are you doing?" look. This was a very quick, very mean look that caused the dozen or so people around us to all gasp collectively. For a moment, we were in the savannah and this lion had just scoped my three-year-old out as dinner. Before I could recall that I was in a very safe place and situation, I had a moment or two of panic. I truly believe that if he could have, that lion would have pounced on Devin and gobbled him up.

That's right, folks. You heard it here: My kid is loud enough to tick off a lion. The King of the Jungle. The most feared of all creatures. But my child managed to momentarily get the upper hand with him.

Proud? Yes, a little. Thinking I may never take him to the lion exhibit again? You better believe it.

Yesterday afternoon, Devin had his first gymnastics class. I was a gymnast for many, many years and when I got bored of that, I was a diver. So I have a vested interest in the sport and was thrilled when my friend and across-the-street neighbor, Susan, asked if Devin wanted to join her son, Reid (one of Devin's best buddies) in the gymnastics class.

Devin did really well. We had a couple of bumps at first when all he wanted to do was jump into the foam pit, but once he got the hang of doing the circuit, he did great. His teacher even commented that she really liked Dev and hoped he would continue. So I guess we've got plans for Monday afternoons.

Life with the girls is good too. As expected, shortly after finding Faith's two bottom teeth, Gracie's showed up too. They are doing great on their solid foods and seem to be going through a growth spurt, as they are taking 15 or so ounces of milk every night before bed. Yowza!

So that's about it for us. I have some pictures, but I'm trying to figure out how to get them onto the laptop without first putting them on the desktop. Hopefully soon...

Erin

Finally...PHOTOS!

I've been promising photos for awhile now, and just this morning I have gotten to actually tranferring them from one computer to the other. So, here are my kiddos...in all their glory.

We built a fort one day in our living room and Devin played and played in it. At one point, he asked if he could move the TV in there. Ummm...no. But nice try.


Happy babies! Faith is on the left, Grace on the right


Same babies...not quite as happy. Again, Faith on the left, Grace on the right


My little ladies

No Phantom Teeth This Time...

Back in January, I reported that Grace had sprouted a tooth. Turns out, babies often develop pockets of saliva that can look like teeth -- white little bumps on the ridge of the gumline. Looks like that is what it was, since Gracie is still as toothless as ever.

But Faith on the other hand...

Yesterday, Faith's Godmother, Linda, came over for lunch. We sat and talked, catching up after much-too-much time had past since our last, good visit. Faith sat on Linda's lap, mouthing everything in sight. Gracie was doing the same on my lap on the other end of the couch.

Linda made the comment that the girls are acting like they are teething and I answered, "They've been drooling and gnawing on things since they were three months old, but so far, no teeth!"

Now I have to interrupt myself here to let you know about my girls -- they love to make me into a liar. As soon as I say they can't do or say something, they immediately do it. For example, Devin swore that Grace was calling him a name in the car the other day.

"She's calling me a baby!"

"No she's not, Devin. She's just babbling."

Truth be told, I wasn't really listening. I've gotten very good at tuning out crying, whining and other noises that would otherwise send me to the looney bin.

As soon as I told Devin, though, that Gracie was just babbling and that she didn't know enough words to call him a name, she very clearly and very loudly said, "Baaaaybeeee..." Of course, I know that she did not intenionally call Devin a baby, but try explaining that to a three-year-old.

So there I sat, proved wrong by a child under the age of one. How's that for an ego-booster?

Anyway, back to my original story...

Just as I was telling Linda that there wasn't a tooth in sight for my twins, Faith guided Linda's finger into her mouth and, "Chomp!" down she clamped on Linda's finger. And out of Linda's mouth came a yelp.

"There's a tooth in there!"

Sure enough, Faith's lower left front tooth is budding through her little gums.

Proved wrong...again. I'm starting to get a complex.

So now we're waiting for Gracie to get her first tooth. It can't be too far behind, can it?

Expanding Horizons

Over the past week or two, we've been experimenting with finger foods for the girls. First we started with one of those little mesh sacks that you can put fresh fruit in and let babies suck the juice and pulp out. Then we moved onto the little melt-in-your-mouth puffs and some soft, diced fruit.

And now, we are starting to work on some real foods. For the firs time ever, the entire Pruetz family shared a meal together last night. While Devin, Todd and I dined on honey mustard chicken, chicken-flavored rice and green beans, the girls sat in their high chairs at the table and also munched on the rice and green beans. It was great -- I never realized how much I was looking forward to those kinds of experiences until we were all together. A perfect little family dinner.

This morning, after their morning milk, the girls ate their breakfast completely by hand. I didn't spoon feed them a single bite. Grace chowed down, but my sensitive little Faith was a little more resistant to doing it herself. She's also a little resistant to the sippy cup. Grace will drink anything from a sippy cup, but Faith is still partial to the bottle. I believe strongly in kids being off bottles by age one (or at least very shortly thereafter), and I have a feeling it's going to be a struggle with my little Roo. She reisists change -- just like her mommy.

Of course, the dawn of finger foods means gone are the days of pretty, clean dresses and perfectly scrubbed faces. The twins wake up looking shiny and clean every morning, but moments later they are covered in goo and schmutz. And all you mothers out there know that you can scrub and scrub with a washcloth or wet paper towel, but that nothing will get dried biter biscuit off the face until you actually submerge the kid in water and chisel it off.

And so goes the story of my gooey, schmutzy kids.

This morning we are going to enroll Devin in one of our local church's summer program. I think it will be good training for him, in preparation for Pre-K in September. Where did my baby go?

Looks like a nice day here in San Antonio, so we'll try to spend some time outside. We've had some killer storms (literally -- a number of people have died) in our fair city over the past week, with countless tornados and squall lines that have dumped nearly a foot of rain in some parts of the Alamo City. Lightening and thunder are just a part of our every day around here lately!

But hopefully we've got a few clear days, so we're heading outside to soak it up.

Peace.

NBC - Six Years Too Late

Last night, Todd and I watched one of NBC's latest shows - The Real Wedding Crashers. The premise is that a bride and groom allow four or five men and women to come and stage horrific events surrounding their wedding.

Last night's episode, for example, had a bride and a groom who set up their best man to knock over the wedding cake two days before the wedding and then invite a woman to the wedding who would, in turn, show up in a white, bridal gown. They also set up the bride's father to accidentally leave the wedding rings in a car that was being towed away. To get the rings and the car back, he had to give the tow truck driver a hug and a kiss.

And all of that was before the wedding actually happened.

At the wedding itself, parachuters crashed down into the outside ceremony, the disgruntled baker showed up very angry and the tow truck driver ended up at the head table.

Needless to say, the family and friends of this couple were dumbfounded by it all, until the "crashers" revealed their scheme and that the bride and groom were in on it all.

It was hysterical and as we watched with our jaws on the ground, Todd and I looked at one another and said, "Why wasn't this show around six years ago when we got married?"

I so would have done this. I'm not sure how it would have played out, since we got married less than three weeks after September 11. Our reception was on the 70th floor of the tallest building in Dallas -- a building which housed the headquarters of the country's 3rd largest bank and the regional headquarters for the FBI. Needless to say, there may have been some "issues," if we'd tried to have our wedding professionally crashed.

But we would have tried nonetheless. Talk about a memorable wedding!

Check the show out at NBC.com

Happy Campers

The Pruetz family is back and I have good news: We survived our first camping trip! We are tired, dirty and a little ripe, but we had a fun time.

We left Saturday morning for McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, about 70 miles north of here. We arrived at the campsite around 11:00 a.m. and met up with my sister and her family, as well as a number of friends. In all, there were about 40 people there! We immediately pitched our nine-person tent (borrowed from our neighbors, as our poor little four-person tent is no longer sufficient) and got settled in. Then the fun began.

There was talking. And eating. Todd took Gracie on a "hike" (in other words, he carried her on his shoulders for a couple of miles) and then took Devin down to see the falls. There was some sitting around and some playing of cards (the game, "Spoons," was hit) and then some more eating.

The thing about camping was this: I wasn't required to do anything. I didn't have to feel lazy about sitting around. There was no kitchen to mop, or laundry to do. The meals were divided up by family, so I didn't even have to worry about cooking until this morning. I had to make sure the kiddos were happy and making life miserable for anyone and the hardest part of the weekend was keeping the babies entertained. We weren't too keen on allowing them to crawl through our three combined campsites, so they spent the whole time held or in their Pack-n-Plays. They weren't thrilled and I had to put them in the van and drive them around to get them to take a nap yesterday afternoon.

But aside from these few bumps, it was a good trip. We agree that we won't be camping again as long as the girls are crawling, but my guess is we only have about six weeks left until walking begins anyway. I forsee another trip for us this fall (it's way to hot to camp during the summer in Texas).

On a completely different note, I start work tomorrow.

Didn't see that coming, huh? :)

My former employer, MySanAntonio.com has been looking for someone to do some production work for them -- posting some blogs, proofing and posting feedback, working on client pages, etc. When I heard they were in need, I said, "I'll do this for you on a parttime basis, if you'll let me do it from home." The company's general manager and my friend, Julie, decided that was a good idea and so in my spare time, I'll be doing some work for the site. It's a perfect situation -- a few hours a day, some extra money and the ability to do it all from home. MySanAntonio.com came through for me 18 months ago when they allowed me to work parttime in sales and, once again, they've created a perfect situation for me. What more could I ask for?

I'm actually really looking forward to the whole thing. It'll be nice to use that part of my brain that has not been used in a long while. While I don't miss the stress of holding down a career and a family, I do miss working and this should be a perfect fix for me.

In other news, Todd's new job is doing great. Not unexpectedly, he's already gotten accolades from the VPs and other high-ups and seems to have found a good friend in his boss. I don't doubt that he will go very far in this company.

The babies are doing great, too. They're all over the place and are pulling up on everything. They even pull up on the walls. That was the last step for Devin before he started walking, so as I said before, I don't think we'll be at this crawling stage much longer.

Devin had a great time camping and we're looking forward to doing some fun MOMS Club activities in the coming months, now that things have finally slowed down.

So I guess that's about it for us. More fabulous updates as they happen.

E

A Few Prayer Requests

I could easily flood my blog with prayer requests every single day. I have a very active prayer community and all prayer requests that come my way are taken very seriously. But since this blog is supposed to be about my family, I try to keep posts like these to a minimum. I only post the requests that are very close to me.

This time around, my dear friend Jackie, has a nephew who has been diagnosed with brain cancer. His wife died from cancer a year ago and now he's facing this. It breaks my heart.

Jackie holds a very special place in my heart because she is the grandmother to a set of quadruplets. She prayed her four grandchildren into this world 15 years ago and she prayed my twins here last year. She understands me on a very deep level.

In addition to her nephew, one of the quads -- the only girl of the group -- is suffering from mononucleosis-like symptoms. She's tested negative for mono and everyone is puzzled by her symptoms. She's starting to get very frustrated, as she is a very active 15-year-old.

So I ask for your prayers for Jay and Ashley.

Lastly, I have an email friend named Stacy with whom I correspond every few days. Stacy and I have never met and never talked on the phone, but we're connected by our sets of monoamniotic twins. Her girls, Kelsey and Kaylee, are two years old and are precious. We keep up with one another via our blogs.

In the past few days, Stacy has blogged about her friends, Andy and Amber and their nine-year-old son, Brendon, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer -- non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He is undergoing chemo right now and will be in the hospital for a number of weeks. The hospital is more than an hour from their home.

Please pray for Brendon, Andy and Amber. They need peace and hope right now.

Because this little family is surviving on one income, the bills are already starting to pile up. With gas near $3.00/gallon (they live up in the Northeast), it's very expensive just to get to Brendon.

For this reason, Stacy is taking donations for the familyl. Please understand that I am not soliciting donations for this family. I do not know Andy, Amber or Brendon -- I've never met them, never seen them and never corresponded with them. Their story touched my heart and I felt compelled to share it with others, seeking prayers.

If your heart calls you to it, though, please let me know if you'd like to donate money to the family. I can give you Stacy's email address and you can either contact her for more information or use her email address to send money through PayPal.

Thank you all very much for your prayers for these three families. Prayer is a powerful thing and God hears every word of them.

Peace,
Erin

Unplugged and Unincumbered

Greetings from...our living room! I am writing to you from the latest addition to the Pruetz family -- an Apple Mac Book. It's a fantastic, laptop computer with lots of bells and whistles.

We've had a desktop Mac for a few years now and while I'm still very much a PC person, I've grown to love the Mac in a lot of ways. Todd is a graphics guru and having a Mac just makes sense. Our desktop has served us well.

Recently, my dad has been bitten by the Mac bug. He got an iMac and has had a really fun time playing around with the functions that you just can't get on a PC. He's had so much fun, in fact, that he decided Todd needed an upgrade to his current computer and bought him a laptop. We'd been in the market for a laptop anyway (so we could take it on vacation and such), so what great timing! Todd was totally surprised by the gift and he and my dad are already planning on their first iChat and other fun events.

The Mac Book hadn't been in our house for 24 hours before Todd ran out and bought a wireless router. Not knowing much about how internet connections work, I didn't realize how easy it was to go from DSL to wireless. I thought you had to subscribe to a service or something, but you just need a router that converts the wired DSL signal to a wireless signal.

So now, instead of being tethered to my desk, I am sitting in my favorite chair in my family room, just typing away. It's pretty cool. I know wireless internet connectivity has been around for a long time, but to finally have it in your own home is a pretty liberating experience. :)

This weekend was a fun one for our family. Obviously, we had family in town. Dad and Jean came in on Saturday and we had a bar-b-que here at our house last night. This morning, the whole family attended 9:30 Mass where Addison, my niece and Goddaughter, took her first Holy Communion. Communion and the Eucharist are the benchmarks of the Catholic faith and to see Addy take the body and blood of Christ for the first time was something that brought a lot of pride into my heart. Our faith continues...

Afterwards was a reception at ZZ's house for about 35 people. It was lots of fun and the zillion-and-one kids there had a great time playing together.

We were supposed to go to a Fiesta event this evening, but a rainy day caused us to cancel.

Fiesta is a ten-day party here in the Alamo City. Over the course of two weekends and the weekdays in between, there are over 100 official events and hundreds more unofficial events. Some of the events can get pretty wild and wooley, like OysterBake and NIOSA (pronounced nye-OH-sah and stands for Night in Old San Antonio), while others cater toward families and youngsters. Falling under the latter category is the Fort Sam Houston Fiesta Event. We've never been, but our good friends Jennifer and Jesse and their two kids go every year. It's a family-oriented event with food and games for the whole fam, a paratrooper show and a firewords finale. We had planned to take a picnic out there and let the kids run wild, but it wasn't meant to be. Definitely next year.

We're also fans of the Pooch Parade which we won't be able to attend this year.

So, if you're planning a trip to San Antonio, you may want to consider doing so in April. Enjoy the events, the street parties, the stage shows and the parades. You won't be let down.

I know I've been promising to post photos of the kids and I swear, I will soon. I just need to actually take some. :) Thanks for bearing with me.

E

A Year Ago Tonight...

I was all alone in room 159 of the Antepartum unit at Methodist Hospital. My day had been a traumatic one, leaving my two-year-old behind while he napped. I'd said goodbye to him as I tucked him in and he said to me, "You're leaving now?" I told him yes and he replied, "Now I'm going to cry." And he did. We both did.

I laid there that night, not sleeping much despite the prescription sleep aid and Vicodin I was given. I worried myself to death -- how would my family fair through all of this? Would Devin be traumatized? Would Todd? Would I? Would I ever meet my girls? If so, when? Would there be some sort of major set back in monitoring that would cause an emergency c-section? Would they survive? Would they be healthy, or would they face a lifetime of respiratory problems, vision problems, learning disabilities or retardation? How long would they be in the hospital? Would they come home at the same time? Was I ready for this?

It was a horrible night. I cried. A lot.

I remember commenting to Todd, on our way to the hospital this time last year, "I'll never forget April 17, 2006 for as long as I live. No matter what I'm doing on this day, throughout my life, I'll never forget April 17, 2006." I still believe that to be true.

I can't believe what a difference 365 days make. This time last year was such a horrible time of uncertainty and sadness. But it was also an awesome time of community and friendship. I never knew I was surrounded by so many wonderful people. God has blessed me abundantly.

Today, one year later, I'm a stay-at-home mom with three gorgeous kids. Devin is a kick in the pants who keeps me laughing and the twins -- labeled the "maybe babies" by Todd because they were such a maybe for so many months -- are perfectly healthy and developmentally sound. I'm not sure what I did to deserve all of this and I'm thankful every day for it.

Speaking in the present tense now, I'm back from my retreat and mostly rested up. No one goes on an ACTS Retreat and gets much rest and being a team member only exacerbates the problem. I was exhausted when I returned on Sunday.

But it was worth every moment of sleeplessness and late nights. We had 42 amazing women who really opened their hearts up to the Lord and His message. We couldn't have asked for a better group.

And we couldn't have asked for a better team, either. 24 incredible women who did exactly as they said they would do and made the weekend so special for so many. The retreat virtually ran itself. Tina -- the Director -- and I said, "Okay, it's time to move onto the next thing," and that's exactly what happened. Everybody moved onto the next thing. The team's organization and perserverance were amazing. I doubt it could have gone any better.

Upon our return to 11:00 Mass on Sunday, we had a united group of 68 women who sat together during Mass, spontaneously broke into song after Mass on the patio (our them song Companions on the Journey) and dined together on an incredible feast served by the rest of the Holy Trinity ACTS Community. It was amazing. Nothing short of God's work on Earth.

And now it's back to reality. But that's okay, because my reality is a good one. It's a great one, in fact.

It's night-night time for me. I'm going to bed. My own bed. Ahhhh...it's good to be home.

A Quick Update

I have a few moments of relative peace, so I thought I'd put some words down on paper (or screen, as the case may be).

We had a lovely Easter in Houston with my enormous family. It's funny how I grew up with two parents and one sister and now, suddenly, after a couple of "I dos" between my dad and stepmom in September of 2004, I have four more sisters, another niece, another nephew (and anther niece on the way, due in August), another brother-in-law and scads of family friends. So our once-small family gatherings have turned into an enormous undertaking.

We all gathered on Saturday at Heidi's house. In attendance were:

Todd
Me
Devin
Faith
Grace
ZZ
Brian
Addy
Presley
Brendan
Kaelin
Dad
Jean
Heidi (who is pregnant with little Erin -- or so the campaign goes)
Ross (Heidi's husband)
Luke (Heidi and Ross' son)
Amy
Jaime (Amy's daughter who turned SIXTEEN on Easter Sunday!)
Amanda
Diane (Amanda's friend)
Heather (Amanda's friend)
Lindsey

By my count, that's 22.5 people. It was a ton of fun! Easter in Texas was a cold, wet one. We had snow as far South as Austin! We stayed inside the whole day, but that was okay with us. The kids ran around like feral children while adults played cards, napped and talked. It was like Thanksgiving -- only colder. :)

Easter Sunday was cold as ZZ, Addy, Presley and I headed to Mass with Dad. But when we left church, it was clearing up and it turned out to be a beautiful day by the time the rest of the family returned from church (we're so big, we have to split it up).

The kids found their Easter baskets upon our return from Mass. The girls both got new outfits, a package of onesies, books and new sippy cups. Devin got the Happy FeetDVD and lots of candy.

We went over to Pa-Pa and Nana's house (my parents) and had our egg hunt there. Much fun was had by all! Jean cooked an enormous, beautiful and scrumptious meal for all of us, and before we knew it, it was time to go. We packed it up and headed back to San Antonio.

It's just now starting to warm up outside. We're all still in shock at how cold it got in APRIL! We're finally back into the 70s during the day and it feels good!

Tomorrow marks the first day of the retreat we have been planning for more than three months now. I am psyched and terrified by the whole thing. I just have to remind myself that it's too late now for any more planning. We just have to go with what we have gotten done so far and let the Holy Spirit take it from there. It's His show, anyway. We're just the actors.

If you're the praying type, any prayers you can send our way would be appreciated. Pray for our team -- that we will have the strength, knowledge and spirit to pull this off. Pray for our retreatants -- that they will come with open hearts and open minds and find God in new ways in their lives. And pray for our retreat -- that the light of Christ will be in everything we do.

Thanks for all you do. More info next week - and some pictures, too, since I've been really remiss in those!

E

Muddling Through

Greetings again from Pruetz-land. Once again, I have gone way too long between posts. Like I said in my last post, I am working as a co-director for our church's yearly women's ACTS Retreat and as we draw nearer to the weekend of the event, I find myself more and more consumed with the job. I'm loving every minute of it and can't wait for the retreat to get here, but it's a lot of work and it's leaving little time for anything else -- including blogging.

Things are pretty status quo around here, though. Todd starts a new job at Southwest Research Institute on Monday and we're all very excited for him. It's been so much fun having him around, enjoying family time, but now it's time to go back to reality. I'm so thankful for the time we had, though.

The shortest Pruetzes are doing well, too. Devin's antics are the same, although he's recently picked up on a trend of being very verbally affectionate and physically snuggly. I'm getting lots of, "I love you, Mommy. I think you're cute." Oh it just makes my heart swell. It's hard to believe that he's nearly four years old. Where did my baby go?

The girls are doing great, too. They've been pulling up on things here and there, namely me if I'm sitting on the floor, or low window sills. But yesterday, it seemed to "click" with both of them, as they both started to pull up on everything. At one time, Todd was washing dishes at the sink and Gracie pulled up on his leg. It was like watching a cartoon - "Domestic Man and His Trusty Sidekick, Washer Girl!"

This morning, too, Gracie was standing at the coffee table. She reached out a chubby arm, grasped the edge of the couch and made her way over there. The first signs of cruising. Holy smokes.

I'm not quite prepared for this, for a number of reasons. First of all, Devin didn't take his first, unassisted steps until he was 14-and-a-half months old. He was just learning to pull up on his first birthday. That experience led me to believe that I had a few more months before the terror of walking twins began.

Secondly, the twins' first year has gone so much faster than Devin's first year. I guess that is because, with your first, you're totally focused on them and every little thing they do. With your second (and third, as the case may be), you are much more distracted and can't make a big deal out of every coo and wiggle and therefore, the time goes even faster.

Lastly, though, it's hard for me to grasp that Faith and Grace are nearly a year old because of their size. They are both now wearing 3-6 month clothes, which leads me to believe that they are about the size of a six-month-old. When you see a baby that size, you just don't expect for them to be pulling up and cruising. You expect them to be sitting and crawling and all of this just leads to another, "This can't be happening," moment for me.

On top of all of this, the girls are starting to talk. We've wondered for awhile if some form of "Daddy" and "Kitty" were coming out of their mouths, but now there is no mistaking it. Gracie is definitely saying, "Mama," and "Dada" and possibly, "Devin" (which sounds more like, "Daba"). We're not quite so sure about Faith's babbling, but I'm positive that she did the sign for Mama yesterday when she saw me. Fingers splayed out, thumb tapping in the chin. It was awesome!

That's about all from our neck of the woods. I'm not sure how much posting I'll get done between now and the retreat (which is the 12th - 15th), but I'll be back at some point.

E

Head Hung in Shame

I'm painfully aware of how long it's been since my last post. But I have an excuse. I have lots of excuses, in fact. And they're good ones...at least in my mind. :)

First of all, spring is not treating the Pruetz family well. For the fourth time in three months, we've passed strep around. It always starts the same. One of us gets it, and three days later, the next person gets it and then so on and so forth. By the time the last person in the family is done with their antibioitics, it starts all over again. We're in the process of having everyone tested for strep "carrier" status, but one has to be feeling well for those tests to happen. Since it seems that no one ever feels well in this family, finding a time for testing is difficult.

The past time, it hit me the worst. I spent a full seven days hacking, sneezing and wheezing. Apparently, I had some sort of viral infection that became a secondary, bacterial and thus strep. Another Z-pack for me.

The girls are now on a 14-day regimen of Cefzil and Todd just finished his 14 days of antibiotics. We're waiting to see when Devin comes down with it. And then we'll start the whole cycle over again, I am sure.

Along with the traveling bacteria, I have taken on a couple of large roles in my life. First off, I have been named the Vice President of my local MOMS Club International chapater. It's not a huge job and doesn't take up that much time, but it does require some thought and certainly an on-going committment to our club.

And on top of that, I have been asked to be the co-director of our church's yearly Women's ACTS retreat. I've talked about ACTS retreats in the past, but if you want more info, there is a link on the left side of my blog titled, "ACTS Mission." You can read all about it there.

ACTS is very near and dear to my heart, as a weekend with ACTS is a life-changing experience for anyone who takes the time to go. I hardly know a single person who hasn't come back completely and permanently different. As my friend and ACTS sister Jennifer says of her husband who returned from a retreat two weeks ago, "He's new and improved."

Being asked to be a director or co-director is an honor. ACTS is taken very seriously and to be asked to lead a retreat is to be deemed trustworthy, spirit-filled and capable.

All of that makes me wonder, "Why was I asked?"

The truth is, I have a lot of trepidation about being a co-director. Certainly I draw a lot of strength from those around me who think I'm capable of such a job, but my own self-doubt makes me think, "There are hundreds of people better for this job than I." The ACTS community at our church alone is near 1,000 people.

Despite my doubts, I've accepted the job, and along with my good friend Tina, who is the major head honcho -- the Director -- things are going very well. We have a team of 25 wonderful women who are making our jobs easier than they should be. I suspect the weekend of April 12-15 will be a phenomenal one, due to the hard work of so many spiritual women.

I am very, very lucky.

In homestead news, despite bacterial growth, the kiddos are doing fine. Devin is officially enrolled in Pre-K starting in September and he is very excited. The girls are more and more mobile every day, and are starting to pull up. They're still very adept at getting to their knees, but Faith is determined to get up on her feet. It'll happen soon -- they are both so strong and so determined. Watch out world...here they come.

We're enjoying gorgeous weather here in San Antonio, with highs in the mid-70s during the day. We've spent a lot of time outside lately and are soaking it up while we can because, before we know it, it will be 108 outside and totally unbearable.

So, again, I am sorry for my lack of postings. Hopefully I'll find more time soon, but if I don't, please bear with me.

E

Genius in the Family

Check out my sister-in-law, Jill Pruetz, and the research she recently published. This article is on Fox News and she's also been picked up by National Geographic and the BBC.

You make us proud, Dr. Jeel!

Killer Chimps Make Spears, Hunt Bushbabies

Nine Months and Counting

Monday marked the girls' nine month birthdays and that meant one thing: a checkup!

On Tuesday afternoon, we ventured in to see Dr. Trexler. We started out by actually seeing the doctor before we saw the nurse, but that was fine with us. We talked a little bit about the girls' development as well as their eating and sleeping habits. I told Cheryl that both Faith and Grace seem to really prefer jar food to having a bottle and she assured me that this is fine. As long as they will take a bottle a couple of times during the day, they are just fine to have as much baby food and even soft table food as they like.

I casually mentioned that both girls seemed to have caught the cold that Devin had been diagnosed with about ten days ago. His strep test had come back negative so I didn't think much of it when the girls got a little congested and cranky.

To be on the safe side, though, we went ahead and did a rapid strep test.

Well whadda-ya know? Both girls have strep. No wonder they've been so difficult!

At the end of the appointment, while we waited for Cheryl to write out the prescriptions, we weighed and measured the girls. Grace is 15 lbs, 5 oz and 26.5" while Faith is 14 lbs, 8 oz at 26". Because of the whole unexpected strep thing, I failed to ask about their percentages, but I found a growth chart calculator that says that Faith is at less than the 3rd percentile for weight and at the 5th percentile for height. According to the same calculator, Grace is in the 3rd percentile for weight and the 12th percentile for height.

Okay, so they are a little small. But they are doing all sorts of great things like pulling up to their knees and babbling. Dr. T didn't seem worried, so why should I?

Back here at the homestead, the girls immediately started feeling better, making our lives a whole lot easier.

In fact, it seems that their third round of strep in two months has only increased their adorable-ness. Check out this story.

Last night, as we were feeding the girls, Todd stepped out of the room with Faith while I held Grace. Upon seeing her Daddy leave, she pulled the bottle from her mouth and said, "Dada..." I really didn't think much of it.

This morning, though, as we were watching some TV with Devin, Grace turned to the television, waved her hand toward the dark-haired, mid-thirties man on the screen and said, "Dada..." Okay...this time I think she was really talking about her father.

Unfortunately, Todd was not here to experience this. I wish he were. It was awesome.

Later on, I swear Grace said, "Hi Kitty," (or something remotely close to it). I've been teaching them to wave by waving to the cat and saying, "Hi Kitty!" whenever the fuzzy black feline draws near. I think Gracie caught on!

But now, for the cutest of the cutests...

I have a habit of kissing my girls on their foreheads. I tend to gently brush the palm of my hand over their foreheads first and then lay a soft kiss just above their eyes. I've noticed that I do this a lot.

Well, today, Grace was lying on the floor and Faith crawled over to her. I kid you not on this next part... Faith raised her hand (I thought Baby Smackdown 2007 was about to happen) and gently put it on Grace's forehead. Faith then removed her hand and lowered her head toward Grace's, where she softly placed her lips above Grace's eyes. She held her mouth there for a moment, then got up and moved onto chasing the cat.

Am I imagining things? Are they too young to do this kind of stuff? I guess it doesn't matter. It was so sweet and so perfect that I just don't care if Faith meant to do it or not. It brought tears to my eyes.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos for you...

Baby Body Slam! (And that's Faith, the small one on top of Grace)


Todd is teaching Devin to breakdance, which is what he is doing here. Fantastic. And yes, that's a Mickey Mouse blanket in my formal living room. If you can't be a kid once in awhile, what's the point in being a grownup? You should see my tribute to the Haunted Mansion at the end of my staircase. :)

Going Down?

This weekend, I walked into the girls' room just in time to see Faith up on her knees, holding onto her crib aquarium. It scared me enough to have Todd lower her mattress from the highest notch to the middle. Grace's crib has high enough rails that if she were to pull herself onto her knees, her nose would barely be above the top, so I'm not so worried about her (yet -- it'll come).

But to me this was such a bittersweet step. My girls are really growing up. I know I had a hard time with Devin getting bigger, but I don't remember it being this hard. Maybe it's because they are so little, but to me, they are still infants, not mobile little people who recognize and crawl toward me. They are just so tiny. I keep commenting that having them crawling around the house is pretty much just like having another couple of cats around. I mean seriously -- I've had felines bigger than these girls.

*Sigh*

I guess this is just a part of mommyhood, but if we can put a man on the moon, can't we find a way to make watching your kids grow up a little easier? I mean really...

In Response To Your Comment, Karen Blake, on February 14

I don't know if everyone else reads the comments that others leave (you're welcome to -- my life's an open book), but on my last post, dated February 14, 2007, good friend Karen Blake left a comment pointing out that I don't need a video camera because it's not like I would ever post the video anyway. Well here is my rebuttal.

Karen is a good friend of mine. She's been one of my best friends (was in my wedding, in fact) since the 10th grade. She's from up North and has a pretty thick skin (unless she's talking about her new-found love, Eck-Tor, then she turns to jelly. I knew she wasn't as tough as she made herself out to be). She'll tell you what's on her mind and won't sugar coat anything. Her candor and ability to say anything to anyone are the things I love most about her.

And because she has such a sharp tongue, it's often hard to "get her." You know what I mean -- not understand her, but rather get her.

But everyone once in awhile she slips up and someone gets the opportunity to point out a flaw or a fault in her argument.

Here is mine.

Butchy -- you've been a devoted follower of my blog for over a year now, posting comments and always contacting me to discuss things of true importance. You're an excellent friend. You always have been.

But I'm a little disappointed in your lack of recall of my blog. I'd like to point out a prior post to you. Please click here and read carefully, especially the paragraph just prior to the photos at the bottom.

Ahem...

You see, I have a video camera that I use often. But because I work on a Mac (Todd's an artist), our Sony DVD Cam does not upload properly to or through the computer, rendering it impossible to post video through any number of posting sites like VideoEgg or YouTube.

So there.

Ahhhh...it doesn't happen often, but when I can beat Karen at her own game, it certainly feels good. That means the score, which has been kept since we were 15 years old, now stands at the following:

Karen
2,621,257

Erin
1


Have a great weekend...

Life in the Fast Lane

We've been having a rip-roarin' good time here at the Pruetz house. This weekend took us to Houston to see my parents and step-sisters (two of the four live in Kingwood near my parents). We arrived on Thursday and enjoyed spending time with Nana and Pa-Pa. That night, my step-sister Heidi, her husband Ross and their little boy, Luke, came over. Devin had an awesome time playing with Luke and they devised a new game with Pa-Pa in which they threw items into the swimming pool while Pa-Pa fished them out. I'm not sure Pa-Pa found it to be as fun as Luke and Devin did, but he was a good sport nonetheless.

Friday we took Devin down to the town of Kemah (KEE-muh) on Galveston bay. Kemah is not much to speak of as a town, but in the past few years, a traditional Coney-Island-style boardwalk has been built. There are lots of restaurants, shops and rides to play on.

Devin isn't much of a daredevil (contrary to his parents who love a good thrill) and we thought he wouldn't get on any of the rides. But lo and behold, he hopped right on. He rode the Ferris Wheel, the airplanes, the tower and the train. He played on the playground and even reached right in to pet a Stingray in the Stingray Reef. We ate lunch at the Aquarium, a restaurant built around huge fish tanks with sharks, rays, and all types of fish in them. We all had so much fun!

Later, just before we headed back to Kingwood, we stopped for ice cream. As Dad, Devin and I enjoyed our frosty treats, Todd decided to see if the girls would like a bite of frozen concoction.

Faith was unimpressed (as she usually is!), but when he laid a tiny bit on Gracie's tongue, the screetching started. Over and over again, Grace would take a bite of ice cream, swallow it and then proceed with flapping her arms and making lots of noise in request for another bite. It was hysterical. I wish I'd had my video camera. It was priceless.

That night was dinner again at Nana and Pa-Pa's house with Heidi, Ross and Luke and another step-sister, Amy.

Saturday morning, the Pruetzes and Pa-Pa headed to Beaumont. Beaumont is the town where my mom grew up and where my grandparents lived their entire lives. It's not a beautiful town and, in fact, was named the "Cancer Capital of the World" a few years back. But it holds a lot of good memories for me. My mom's parents were very special to me -- they were the ultimate grandparents, taking me places and always showering me with attention. I miss them very, very much, but it warms my heart to know that they are reunited with my mom in Heaven.

It had been nearly 11 years since I last went to visit Nana and Poppa's graves, so we made the trek to the cemetary to pay our respects. We also drove by their house -- the dream house they built when my mom was 17 -- and sat out front remembering countless good times. It was bittersweet and I am so glad I went.

When we returned to Kingwood that night, Todd and I got a special treat -- Dad and Jean babysat the kids while we went on a date! We went to the movies to see, "Hannibal Rising," (save your money...it was horrible) and then to one of my very favorite restaurants, Pappa's Seafood. We sat at the bar first and had martinis and then dined on some of the best, freshest seafood in Houston. It was awesome and we felt like adults!

Sunday morning, Jean fixed a delicious brunch for all of us and we headed back to San Antonio. Thanks for the hospitality, Dad and Jean! We hope that you have recovered from the onslaught of loud children!

Here are home, things are going great. Faith is continuing to make strides in her crawling (pun not indended!). She's now figured out she can actually get to destinations and has even mastered crawling on the wood floors and the tile, despite having on jammies or some sort of leg coverings. We have to watch her like a hawk, too, because she can very easily go from a sitting position to a crawling position and be off like a shot!

Faith also pulled up yesterday. She only got herself up to her knees, but soon she'll figure out that from her knees she can get to her feet. Then it's only a matter of time before she starts to cruise and then walk. Oh boy...

Grace isn't quite as mobile as Faith yet, but she's working on it. Yesterday she managed to coordinate both arms and both legs and took her first real crawling steps. She hasn't learned to go from sitting to crawling yet, though, so she stays put when you set her down. But she watches Faith intently and I can see the wheels turning in her head. She'll be crawling around all too soon, I can tell.

So I am spending my days chasing after munchkins and making sure that Hot Wheels and other choking hazards are out of the way. Just one more thing to think about, I guess!

Today is Valentine's Day, which also means that it's Heather "ODUS" Russo's 31st birthday. I hope it sucks, ODUS. You stink.

(You've got to know Heather and my relationship to appreciate this humor. While we've been the best of friends since college and I was even maid-of-honor in her wedding, we communicate with hatred instead of love. It's all in good fun, even though Heather is easily the ugliest person I've ever met. :)

Happy Valentine's Day to all of the Pruetz family friends and family. Enjoy the love and spread it around...

Us

Crawlin', Crawlin', Crawlin'...

Well...it's happened. My babies aren't just scootching around on their tummies. They are movin' and groovin'.

Okay, the truth be told, only Faith is movin'. Grace is still doing a commando-type crawl and going backwards, but on Monday, Faith popped up on all fours, rocked back and forth as has been her recent custom and then suddenly starting moving forward with all four limbs in synchronization. Todd and Devin were working on something in the garage and I ran and got them for the spectacle.

Yes, I cried.

Grace is a little frustrated that her sister has become so adept at getting from one place to another, but she too is making her own advances. She now waves hello and goodbye (especially to the Monster, our cat) and this afternoon, as I was laying her down for a nap, she started to babble. Not just coo with her usual, "Oohs," and, "Ahhhs," but rather actually make word-like noises like, "Da-pa, do, gee, wah-tee." I could have sat and listened to it forever. It's like being this close (my thumb and pointer finger are really close together here) to having a conversation with her.

And now, without further ado, here are some photos of my favorite short people. Enjoy!

Here is Devin, all decked out to root for his favorite football team. Too bad they lost. Sorry Aunt Jill.


The girls, playing nicely. Enjoy it now, Erin...it won't be like this for long


A personal favorite of mine (and future blackmail material for Gracie). This is the hazard that comes with a mobile child -- they tend to wiggle away from you before you are done with the task at hand (in this case, changing a diaper).

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."