Four Months Old!!!

Getting one girl to smile is hard enough...

Our little girls made it to their four month birthday yesterday. This last month was quite an adventure, so here's a little update on their big adventures!

Abby

Bridget

On March 19th we packed up the girls and their stuff and flew on a 5.5 hour flight out to California to visit my family. The girls had met everyone except for Mike, Kallie, Jack, and Audrey, but most of them hadn't seen the girls for a while. We spent a week just spending time with all the McKean side of the family and it was a very enjoyable time. The girls did great on the flights and had no issues with the time change. While we were out there the whole family went to Disneyland. Yep! Their first trip to Disneyland at only 3.25 months old. The day started off uneasy, but the girls did well and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Another development also occurred while we were in CA (besides the girls getting their first whiff of In-n-Out and being hooked)... they discovered each other. One day they locked eyes and stared. The next day they locked eyes and smiled at each other. Then the next day the started "talking" to each other. Now they do it quite frequently. Abby does most of the talking, but Bridget always lights up with the biggest smile when she sees Abby (it's pretty cute the way she often tucks her chin and puts her fist to her mouth in a very flirty way). Both girls are doing great. They are much more interactive than ever before, but can also be much more crabby than ever before. Like any baby, they realized that we were getting a bit more comfortable with them, so they threw us a curve ball and changed up their routine. We're still trying to re-figure them out, but we just concentrate on surviving one day at a time. To celebrate their 4-month birthday yesterday, we decided to start them on rice cereal. We dug out the spoons, booster seats, and bibs and had at it! Ha! Abby hated it from the start, and Bridget was more receptive but confused... both got equally messy and I'm not sure if any of it was actually swallowed.

Enjoy all the photos and we can't wait to tell you about more fun things they accomplish by their 5 month birthday! :)

Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, Oh My!

One of the things that we have been most excited about is having our families meet the girls. In the last two weeks, we've hosted/met up with Sean (Dan's brother in town for business), Tim, Stef, & Dima (Holly's brother & his wife and their new son passing through Dulles), and Dirk & Erin and the kids (Dan's sister and her family).

Sean was fortunate enough to spend a couple of nights in DC and was selfless enough to ride an hour each way on the Metro every day after a full day of conferences and workshops. He did this every day for three days and we couldn't have been more thankful to have family spending some time with us. However, he was unfortunate enough to not have had his picture taken with the girls...which is why there are no picture of him with the girls! Oh well...we'll see him and his family in May on our way through during our drive to Kansas and we can take plenty of pictures then.

This past week, Holly packed the kids up and drove out to Dulles so she could meet Tim, Stef, and the newest member of their family, Dima Matthew. After many weeks spent in the Ukraine and going through all the ups and downs during the entire process, they have themselves a new son! And since their layover was cooperative, Holly was able to meet up with them. Pictures are below. Unfortunately Dan had to work and couldn't make it out to the airport.

Tim & Bridget

Stef, Abby & Dima (who is quite a little chatterbox!)

Dima was very attentive to the girls' needs while they were being fed.

Finally, we hosted Dan's sister and her family today as they were in town for the baptism of their Godchild. Jackie, PJ, and Diana took to the girls very well and kept asking two things..."Can I hold Baby Briget?" and "Can I hold Baby Abby?" And after having spent half of yesterday in the car, they needed to burn off some steam so we let them build up a sweat playing Wii and then took 'em to Chuck E. Cheese! We don't have any pictures of Chuck E. Cheese's but have plenty of pictures of the Steenwyk family with girls. As always, enjoy!

Erin sure does have hands full!

Jackie & Bridget

Diana was really excited to be able to hold HER Bridget! :)

PJ & Bridget

The Steenwyk Family plus Two!

Capitol Kiddos!

This is a quick post so we could throw some cool pictures up on the blog. We've been told a couple of times that if you're going to survive as parents of twins you have to have a small dose of "crazy." Well, yesterday proved that we are well on our way! We decided that since the weather was so incredible (hi of 78!) that we would take the girls and the dogs into the city so we packed everyone up in the mini-van and off we went!


We carried the kids in their Baby Bjorns and kept the dogs on leashes (obviously) and what we noticed was that every other set of parents with a singleton had way more stuff with them than we did. I'm talking strollers, blankets (it's 78 degrees! Blankets? Really?), diapers bags...the works. What we realized was that since we had two and didn't have room for all that stuff that we are learning to pack only the essentials. If the kids needed a diaper change than they would get one when we got back to the van. Are we really going to wrestle the dogs while we try to change a diaper on the National Mall? No...so we left the double stroller and car seats and diaper bag in the van...and giggled at all the parents pushing strollers overloaded with unnecessary extras...while they looked on in curious amusement at the two idiots with twins and dogs!


Enjoy the pictures. :)

I had to throw this one in there because Bridget has got some really, really blue eyes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

As a Valentine's Day present, we took the girls to the doctor's for their 2 month check-up! The good news is that both girls are doing great. The check-up went very, very well. Abigail is bigger and taller than Bridget and both are in a lower percentile for both height and weight but that's to be expected since they were 3 weeks premature. The highlight came when we found out that Abby's head has a 15 1/2 inch circumference which put her in the 70%...she's a Hayden! For those of you not in on the joke, Hayden babies customarily have enourmous heads...just ask my sister and sister-in-law. It's definitely something I tried to hide from Holly but she figured it out eventually. :P

After the check-up we took them the immunizations clinic to get their shots. We were forewarned that it would be a terrific explosion of tears and screams and the girls did not dissapoint! Poor kiddos. They'll be okay though.

That's it for now. Enjoy the two month pictures!

Bridget is watching her new bear friends very closely.

You can't tell from this picture but Abby (L) is actually bigger than he stocky little sister.

Smiles are usually few and far between from Bridget so you gotta be quick with the camera!

Bridget is just hangin' out with her friends.

Abby might've gotten her wink from her dad.

Abby is all smiles all the time when Daddy gets home from work.

This is a great smile from Bridget. Like I said, gotta be quick with that camera!

Bridget's dressed up in her new monkey outfit while her sister is donning her new cow ensemble.

Quick Update

So this is just a small update with a couple of videos so everyone can see how fast our little ones are growing. It's official...we are on our own. My folks left last week and it's just Holly, me, and the girls! We're getting by but household chores that were being done by parents for the last 6 weeks are the major hurdle we have to overcome. Also, despite popular belief, you can actually get out of the house when you have little ones (provided that you have terrific friends who are willing to babysit) as evidenced by the fact that Holly & I were able to attend the US Army Corps of Engineers 2011 Castle Ball this past weekend. It was a really good time and the most popular comment of the night was to Holly..."You look GREAT!"...and she did. :)


I really don't have a whole lot to say. I'll let the videos do the talking. One is about 30 seconds and the other is about a minute. Enjoy!

Poor Bridget always seems to have trouble wearing hats!

Abigail enjoys her time in the papasan chair.

Didn't I tell you she looked great?

After we give the girls tummy time on the play mat, we roll them over so they can enjoy some time wiggling around on their backs. Bridget will not be impressed in 10 years when she sees that I posted this video of her. Make sure you have the volume turned up for this one. And as you can see, Abby is a little camera shy but likes to stick out her tongue. Enjoy!

The funniest part about Abby is her wake up routine...there is no doubt whatsoever that she got this from her dad. This one is about a minute long and you can hear Holly in the background waking Bridget. The other part about Abby is that she tends to hit the snooze button at the end...just like her dad. ;)

One Whole Month!

Guess who is one month old now! That's right! Abigail and Bridget! It's been quite a month already and here are some photos for you to enjoy.





Abby: Little miss Abigail used to look the part of the bigger sister since her head was much larger than Bridget's, but now she's the skinnier of the two. Her fingers and feet are still incredibly long and skinny. She was born with a grump-face (got that one from her daddy) and has since grown out of it (but she'll bring it back from time to time). She is a champ at sleeping and drinking from a bottle. Dan even helps her to place her hands and she can hold a bottle all by herself (although she has no idea she's doing it). Her eyes are still dark blueish grayish, but they are starting to lighten up and she's got a tiny dimple on her right cheek (got that one from her daddy as well). She also seems to be born with a tan because her skin is much less pink than her sister's.

Bridget: Little miss Bridget was born 11 ounces lighter than her sister, but has since become very "healthy" looking (if you know what I mean). The last she was weighed she was 6lbs 14 oz. Bridget makes some of the goofiest faces, and for a couple of weeks looked very much like a chicken when you tried to burp her. We call her a "fidget" not only because it rhymes with her name, but because she is. 80% of the time someone cries it's Bridget and she dosen't hold still very well. She has also learned a new trick of scooting out of her hats... we can't usually get a hat to stay on her head, and in the mornings she has somehow left her hat where her head originally was and has scooted her body down in the crib (which is pretty amazing since they're swaddled pretty tight).

Both: They are both starting to practice smiling... not on purpose, but it's still just as cute. They love to be together. They sleep in the same crib, pretty much smashed up next to one another. They don't interact a whole lot yet, but there are times that we will find the holding hands or sucking on the other one's sleeve (or head, in on instance). One can cry and scream in the other one's face and there will be no reaction at all.... but when they both scream/cry at the same time, it's either cute or torture.

We LOVE having these two beautiful girls as part of our family. My parents were out for the first three weeks of their lives and were able to help us out a bunch and enjoy some time together. Now Dan's parents are here helping us out for a bit as we make the transition with Dan going back to work (I'm so happy he was able to take an entire 30 days off of work!).

(We got this idea from Mike and Kallie, but each month we will post pictures of the girls with the same stuffed animals as a way to watch them grow. I hope you enjoy, and we'll keep posting pictures as we have time... which with two little girls, you can only imagine how often that is. ;) Enjoy!)

Just In Case

You thought twins were cute...let us introduce you to the serenade of our two wonderful and vocal wee babes. :D