Rock a bye your bear

Greetings!

Elsa and Jonas had another great week. They went to their first library story time and had a great time singing and playing with other kids. They have also upgraded from their high chairs to booster seats!

A daily ritual in our house is to watch a children's program called the wiggles. Elsa and Jonas love them. Mari and Dan like them. The day begins each day with the kids waving their fingers and crying "we we". The videos are of Jonas and Elsa dancing to some of the music. They love a song called "Getting strong". Elsa is flexing her muscles and Jonas is showing off his bicep on one arm in the pictures.

The kids have had several evaluations over the past weeks to see what they qualify for in terms of therapy or support from our various service providers. Each time, they seem to chart a little bit higher and stronger. Go get them!

Pictures: Elsa Getting Strong!; Jonas showing off; The new booster seats. Videos: Dancing; delayed tackle hug; Rock a bye your bear w/ Elsa.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

We are on the chart!

Greetings! A quick week with not a lot to report. Elsa and Jonas met with an occupational therapist this week and were given an assessment for 25 month olds! They made it on the chart! We will post a bigger and flashier post next week!
God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Happy New Year!

Greetings!

We are really looking forward to a year full of growing, changing, learning, and fun for Elsa and Jonas. They had a great Christmas Break and are really used to having both mom and dad home all the time. It has been a blast for all!

Jonas and Elsa have been trying out all sorts of new words and sounds over the past two weeks. It has been fun to do a double-take and say, "what did you just say?"

Our next big project is to get the car seats turned around. Elsa and Jonas are being promoted to forward facing car seats! We plan on getting them installed in the upcoming weeks and will sadly say goodbye to Mari sitting in the backseat with the kids whenever we drove somewhere.

Happy New Year! (Pictures: Elsa with a soccer ball purchased at the South Africa World Cup!; Jonas playing new year's music; Video: Bath Time Again)

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

Greetings!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a special time of year! We have had a wonderful week of family and friend gatherings. It has been so special to see everyone!

The entire family visited the NICU with plates of cookies and big smiles before Christmas. Last year, only Dan and Jonas could make it (Elsa and Mari were at one of countless doctors' appointments) to visit with the NICU staff. This year was the first time back for the whole family and it was wonderful to see so many nurses, doctors, and other staff members that took great care of Elsa and Jonas. Two of the nurses that were present when Elsa and Jonas were born and stabilized them for their ambulance ride to Tacoma were there and they clearly could remember the time and day the two kids were born. Jonas and Elsa gave them both high fives.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were time for family celebrations, presents, prayers, and lots of laughing. Elsa and Jonas really got the hang of opening packages although Elsa liked to rip of 1 inch squares of paper which dramatically increased the time it took to open presents.

Celebrate!

Greetings!

Christmas Break is here! Dan is home from work for two weeks and the Christmas celebrations have already began.

Celebration #1: Jonas and Elsa had a speech evaluation for development and they did great! They are using more and more words all the time. Two months ago they qualified for lots of support for their speech and fine motor skills because of their performance on a non age adjusted test. This time around, they may not have qualified for support because their scores were so good. Regardless of the scores though, we are just so proud of them!

Celebration #2: We had our three month check-in with our GI specialist and dietitian. Jonas weighs 23 pounds and some change. Elsa weighs 22 pounds and some change. The GI specialist that we saw this week described Elsa again using the term, "Amazing!" Elsa no longer qualifies as a "failure to thrive" baby.

Celebration #3: Jonas and Elsa are still playing with the balloons from their birthday party.

Celebration #4: We are so excited to have time to see family and friends in the upcoming weeks!

Pictures: New Hats; Watching Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Paul through the window; Santa was not well received.

Videos: Hopping!; and Santa w/o boots visits our house.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Happy Birthday!

Greetings!

The storm warnings were all over the news this past week. Record rainfall expected in Washington. The skies opened and buckets of rain fell this past weekend. The wind kicked up and shook the last remaining leaves off of the trees. Quite a wild weathery weekend but it paled in comparison to the storm of energy that developed at Elsa and Jonas's two year old birthday party!

Cookies, cupcakes, balloons, presents, singing, laughing, (crying), hugs, kisses, tackle hugs, fire trucks (santa came by on his fire truck sled mid-party) tackle kisses, you name it and it was in our house to help celebrate! It was such a joy to have friends and family present to celebrate two years since that snow storm blew in and welcomed Elsa and Jonas into our lives.

Two years ago, a friend told me about Our Lady of Guadalupe Day. It is a day to celebrate tiny miracles and it just so happens to fall on December 12th. Hurray for our tiny miracles (not so tiny anymore)!

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Greetings!

December is here! Christmas is near! We had a quiet week but is it ever really quiet with twins?

Jonas. Jonas has one speed. He runs everywhere. He loves to climb and has discovered that if he climbs on top of the book basket he can then shimmy up to the couch. Once on the couch he can then jump precariously on the edge while laughing hysterically when he is plucked up by a parent. Jonas is also the enforcer. If Elsa takes a towel from the basket and runs off with it; Jonas will track her down and make sure that the towel finds its home. Jonas loves dogs and whenever one walks by our house, is on the TV, or he sees his dog pet pillow he lights up!

Elsa. Elsa is mischievous. She found a way to pull out every wall socket guard and gleefully ran through the house pulling them out faster than we could put them back in. So successful was she at this, we had to resort to purchasing high tech socket guards to circumvent her efforts. Elsa loves to dance and to spin. She will arch her head back as we spin her around and let out joyous laughs and always asks for more! Elsa loves cats and always lets out little meows whenever she hugs her kitty cat stuffed animal.

We have heard from or seen so many friends and family lately--we love it! Best wishes to everyone in the week ahead.

God Bless,

Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas