First time in a shopping cart

I almost never go grocery shopping with the twins. I always go on weekends when my husband is home with them or on my way home from work. Before I went back to work, I'd sometimes be on a walk with them and swing by the store on our way home, but they'd be in their stroller. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to grocery shop without a stroller when you have twin infants. There is only one seat in the cart! The whole point of this is a round-about way of saying that they've never really sat in a shopping cart! But today, I had to run out for some fish, and Drake was kind of fussy and seemed like he could use an outing, so my hubby and I divided and conquered and D and I headed out to Whole Foods. Drake loved sitting in the cart! He held on to the handlebar so he wouldn't tip to either side, but other than that, he sat there as straight as a needle, looking around, smiling at everyone. And it was fun for me, too, to have my little dude keep me company while on as boring a task as fish-shopping.

Random and unrelated

Not so much to report, just wanted to let everyone know we are still alive and well, and I have been reading everyone's posts. I have been so busy at work, the days just fly by. And it's hard to admit, but part of the reason I have nothing to report is that I am not home with the kids very much anymore and therefore don't see all their little daily achievements.

But they are doing great. Drake is still trying to figure out this thing called crawling. He is so determined. It doesn't seem that he will army crawl, he wants to go right to quad crawling. He never tries to scoot on his stomach, he is all about pushing up to quad and rocking. He can do the arms great, and his right leg is good, too, it's the left leg that isn't sure when to move forward.

I want to take a video, but I lost my camera last weekend. I've been losing things like crazy the past few weeks. Saint Anthony is NOT on my side.

We did take the twins to a petting farm last weekend. Lucy loved feeding the animals pieces of celery. Drake was pretty frightened of the animals, especially the cow, and especially when the cow got right up in his program.

We are going to take Drake to the eye doctor in a couple weeks to see what he thinks of his "lazy" eye. It's barely noticeable, but his right eye doesn't always look straight at you. I am assuming they will give him a patch?

Both twins went for their 18 month well baby and shots last week. Drake is 24 lbs and 32 inches. Lucy is 18 lbs and 29 inches. She was pleased with everything about them and they don't go back until they are 2! I don't think we've gone 6 months without any doctor appointments in a while!

I have also signed Drake up for swimming this summer. It's a program for kids with motor issues and I think he is going to love it.

Built-in best friend

The twins are supposed to be napping, but I keep hearing loud peals of laughter coming from their room. First one, then the other, then together. I can't resist, I have to see what they are up to.

I crack their door open an inch and peek in. Lucy is standing at the far end of her crib that faces Drake's, jumping up and down. Drake is laying on his stomach, but has pushed his bumper down so he can see Lucy. I watch a minute longer and see that Drake is playing a "peek-a-boo" game with the bumper. He lets it go so it pops back up, then pushes it down again. Roars of laughter from each.

Raising twins is no easy task, but every difficult minute has vanished in this moment. They are so lucky to have each other.

Another first

Drake is working so hard to crawl. He can get himself from his stomach up onto his hands and knees, and then he just rocks back and forth. When he tries to actually crawl, it's more of a lunge forward that ends up with him back on his stomach. However, if you move his legs for him, he will move his arms to crawl forward and can "crawl" for several feet that way.

Last night when I put him in his crib, he immediately rolled to his stomach and pushed up onto all fours. I left the room to get Lucy and when I came back in, he was on his knees, holding onto the rail of the crib, and smiling the most pleased-with-himself smile! You could have blown me over with a feather. I have never seen him pull up to his knees before. It wasn't perfect, he hadn't quite figured out how to walk his knees in towards the rail, so he was kind of sagging in the middle, but he had figured out a way to reach up and grab the rail and pull himself up!

Another feat I am hoping to see a lot more of!

Gross Motor Function Classification System for CP

A woman I met on the site Twinstuff (a great support site for anyone with twins) sent me this link after she read my latest post about not knowing what "mild" means when it comes to CP.

http://www.canchild.ca/Portals/0/outcomes/pdf/GMFCS.pdf

She lives in Canada with her twin boys, one of whom was recently diagnosed with CP. I know every child is different and when children are young it is especially hard to say what their future looks like, but I was eating this up.

Anyway, I hadn't seen levels of severity of CP classified like this before and thought I'd share...