Halloween (photo shoot)

Greetings!

Jonas and Elsa have been great this week. Ever so closer to crawling! Elsa is nearly there...one minute she is in front of you and then the next minute she has rolled, scooted, and kind-of crawled ten feet away.

Jonas continues to be a champ with the solid foods. He will eat anything! Elsa is a little indifferent to the whole solid food thing but she had a nice little lunch today of apples and oats.

We did a photo shoot this past week with them in their Halloween costumes. We bought these costumes last year around this time. Who knew what a little trick they would play on us in early December and treat us to two early Christmas presents!:)

Enjoy the photos! (Photos: Ladybug Elsa and Batman Jonas; Husky game night; Halloween styling)

God Bless,

Mari & Jonas & Elsa & Dan

Pajamas!

Greetings!

This week we had two appointments with doctors. Elsa had a swallow study done with mixed results. She was not very into eating at the time and performed all of about 10 swallows in a half an hour. She did aspirate some on the thin liquids (breathed it into her lungs while eating) which is not so good. But, it means that we need to continue to thicken her formula just like we have been doing for the time being. The second appointment was with Elsa and the eye doctor. Elsa was getting her cataracts checked (the little white dots; one on each pupil) to make sure they were not getting larger. She can see just fine with them but the doctor does want to monitor just in case they are the small percentage (under 1%) that do get bigger. The doctor liked what he saw and he just told us to continue to watch at home and call if we were concerned. We will see him again for an annual check up with Elsa and Jonas in April. On a side note at the eye doctor's office we were able to settle a long standing question--what color are Jonas's eyes? Many family members had differing opinions about this. Answers ranged from brown to hazel to green to "Norwegian hazel" (Dan's answer). The verdict from the eye doctor's office: olive.

It is nice to be at a stage where we are talking months instead of days or hours for next check-ups.

In other news...Elsa laughs hysterically whenever either one of us says "pajamas" to her. She can't control the giggles and I actually saw tears one night as she was laughing so hard. Jonas, meanwhile, caught on that Elsa was getting a lot of attention for this. He has now started laughing whenever "pajamas" is said to Elsa with the goal of getting some attention for him. I have been assured by many coworkers that this attention seeking behavior between siblings most likely will continue and hit a high water mark in high school:).

Pictures: Elsa, Jonas, and Dan enjoying some books; E & J striking a pose in outfits that were huge three months ago and now fit just right; E & J demonstrating what happens whenever they are put on the floor near each other; Video of Elsa and Pajamas--this is just a hint at how she responds...she really really gets into it.

God Bless,

Mari & Elsa & Dan & Jonas

Pumpkin Patch

What an amazing day! Last Wednesday my mom and I took the babies along with Jenn and Joshua to a pumpkin patch just a few minutes up the road. The sun was bright, the pumpkins were beautiful and plentiful, and the sunflowers made the background picturesque. Elsa and Jonas wore pumpkin stocking caps that were a gift from a family from our church and school--so adorable! There were no smiles to be had from the 10 month olds, but the adults sure had a lot of fun! Here are a few photos.

Love, Mari, Dan, Elsa and Jonas

If the hat fits...

Greetings!

Another fun week at the Lysne house! Jonas and Elsa had great weeks...lots of smiles, lots of pre-talking cooing and jabbering, and good eating the past several days. Pacific Lutheran's homecoming is this weekend--Go Lutes! We couldn't make it to any of the festivities, although we really enjoyed listening to Godfather Karl doing the color commentary on the radio. The family dressed up in our Lute attire and celebrated!

One of the pictures shows the two in hats. The hats were created by the daughter of one of our NICU nurses. At the time, the hats were suppose to fit newborn babies. We all laughed when we unfolded them and our kids could comfortably nap in them. Now, however, after lots of growing and eating, the hats do indeed fit!

We just made the bump up to 6-9month old clothing for Jonas and are holding steady at 6 month for Elsa. Mari has undertook quite a project though of going through the outgrown clothes and getting them ready for their next home.

Finally, the elusive smiling Elsa has been captured on film. Please enjoy as much as we do!

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Twinners

I was realizing recently that our boy/girl twins do have some very cute twin-like outfits that they are now growing into or soon to be growing out of. I have been on a mission lately to take twin outfit pictures while I can (I'm sure that kind of stuff won't fly in middle school--maybe not even when they are three). So here are some twinner (as my college roommate twins Corie and Jenni like to say) pictures with more to come. There are also a couple of videos of "baby wrestling" and Elsa blowing some kisses in the morning. She does this once in a while and it is so darn funny, but of course she doesn't do it on command, so I was excited I caught a couple on film. We went to the dietitian yesterday. Same old story--not gaining enough weight. But Jonas is in the 14 pound range and Elsa is in the 12 pound range. The dietitian actually called me back after the appointment to encourage me that they are healthy and doing well and have come so far. It is good to focus on things to be grateful for instead of worrying that they won't eat. My worrying has never made them eat more, I don't suppose continuing to worry will all of a sudden make them eat. I am learning to let go and just be so thankful.

Love, Mari, Dan, Elsa, and Jonas