Family Portraits

So Grandma and Grandpa Uhl decided that they would like to have a portrait of them with C&G. I was happy to oblige:

Though this reminded Lea that we still didn't have a picture of the four of us all together, so we got Grandpa Frank to take one:

Snow Babies

Al has thought for a while that we needed to introduce the children to snow... so that they wouldn't be afraid of it later in life. I'm not sure why they would be afraid of snow, but I guess Al is concerned that they may be over coddled. Anyway, on their way to Great Grandpa/Grandma Smith's house today, we stopped to take their photo next to the snow for Al's gratification:

Hanging out with Mum and Daddy

Some shots from our weekend cuddles....

Daddy with Colin


Gillie with Mummy.

Babies in Space....

Colin and Gillian just chillin' on their Astronaut Quilt. They like to lay on the living room floor and look out the front window.

Four Week Check-up

Believe it or not, our babies are four weeks old today! They saw the pediatrician for a well-baby check up this morning. Mr. Colin is now weighing in at 5 lbs 11 oz and 19.25 inches long. Miss Gillie is slightly smaller at 5 lbs 3 oz and 19.25 inches long. The doctor was very pleased with both of them! They also got their first shot today. Babies are now supposed to get their Hep B shot in the hospital after birth, but I wasn't wild about that idea, so we waited. So, now that they are a little bigger and I am a little less nervous, we started the Hep B series today. Next month they get 3 or 4 shots and oral polio. Poor babies, but they did do well today. Their cheeks are even starting to get a little chubby (a LITTLE chubby).

Thank heavens for Uncle David

So we don't have much family that lives within close distance of us, but thankfully we have Uncle David and Aunt Mercedes! (Uncle Willis lives close too, but he is reserving his uncle duties until the babies can talk) Last Sunday, David came over just to help out for a while in the afternoon. Unfortunately, Aunt Mercedes had to work, but she's coming to help tomorrow on her day off. I can tell you that Michael and I are very, very grateful for their help as we have decided that the optimal ratio of caring for newborn twins is actually 3 adults to 2 babies. So while he was visiting, Uncle D changed multiple diapers, cuddled lots of babies, and kept Gillian awake before bed so she would sleep (not a pleasant task as she gets pretty cranky). All this allowed Michael to putz on the computer some and for me to get a nap! Thanks Uncle D!!

Meeting More Family (especially ones named Jane!)

A couple of weekends ago we had some more family come to meet the babies. I am finally getting around to posting some pictures; if you can imagine, we're a little busy at our house!

First is Samantha with Colin. Samantha loves babies right now and they seem to be pretty partial to her too. She really didn't want to leave them at the end of the day; she thought they'd be too big by the next time she saw them 3 weeks later at Thanksgiving!


The same day Great-grandma Smith came to meet the little ones. She, of course, thought the babies were beautiful and perfect! Gillian was particularly fond of Great-grandma.




We are so lucky to have such amazing family that are willing to travel so much to see our babies! We can't wait to see everyone again next week for Thanksgiving. The babies have heard alot about turkey and can't wait to try it.

Stat-O-Rama

So we gave you all of the vitals on the kids back when they were born, but Daddy just found out that the CDC has all of the pediatric growth charts (and underlying data!) on the web. Being an engineer, this data is somewhat irresistible to me, rife with opportunities to plot data from my own children. Not only to plot the actual data, but to eventually make completely fantastic and inaccurate extrapolations. So, shown below are three charts for each youngling: weight for age, length for age, and weight for stature... and because I'm clearly sexist, Colin's charts are presented in shades of blue and Gillian's are in shades of red.

Colin and Gillian's data have some interesting curve shapes due to two main reasons: 1 babies loose weight after birth, and 2 the length measurements made at the hospital were longer than those made at the pediatrician's office. Because of these anomalies I decided to wait for a few more data points to come along before we start our extrapolations showing that each child will eventually reach seven feet in height.

Tart Hats with Actual Sleeping Baby Faces™

Well, the Bean's tart hats arrived in the mail sometime within the past week and a half. Really I can't be more precise, as I'm lucky I know which day of the week it is... I believe that today is Sunday. Anyway, given Jessica's love of baby pictures, it seemed appropriate that we should take some pictures of the younglings wearing their new headgear. You'll note the "Actual Sleeping Baby Faces™".


And,

We like "Actual Sleeping Baby Faces™", and we like the new tart hats!
P.S. I don't have a nifty color reference card, so unlike the Bean's photos, my photos don't feature include one. Art conservationists in the the future probably will lament their absence.

Math's Lecture

So last evening we had the rare treat of having both babies awake and pleasant for several hours. Daddy took this as an opportunity to give the babies a lecture on metric vs. English units and converting between the two. So, he instructed Gillie and Colin on how much mass they had and the difference between mass and weight and how much gravity is on Earth. It was highly enlightening. I can say that Gillie seemed very interested, but Colin seemed to prefer looking at the light. All in all, I think that Daddy enjoyed himself the most. It was very cute.

The babies then proceeded to have an awful night and no one got any sleep! Maybe the maths were too exciting.

Touchdown Penn State!

Photo Downloads

Almost all of the pictures on the blog are hosted on Flickr which is a totally awesome photo sharing website. One of the nicest features is that it hosts original (high-) resolution versions of the photos appropriate for printing. So, for grandparents and others who would like printed photos this would seem like a convenient way to get them the image files. Alas, if you haven't used Flickr before, it's not immediately obvious how you would download the pictures. Well, here's a brief tutorial...

First, if you click on one of the pictures in the blog, you should be taken to a Flickr web page about that photo. Above the photo there should be a little magnifying glass icon with a label reading "ALL SIZES" as shown in the image below:

Clicking on this icon will take you to a new page where you can select any one of a number of different sized versions of the photo. Pick the link that says "Original", as shown below:

Now you have two options that will allow you to save a copy of the picture on your computer. You can either right click on the photo and choose "Save Picture As..." (note that the exact text of this menu may differ based on the browser you are using), or you can simply click on the link that says "Download the Original Size". The figure below illustrates both options.

So, that's all there is to it. Go forth and download.

Meeting Great-Grandma Hannold and other family

Grandma and Grandpa Uhl came down to visit this past weekend and they brought Great-Grandma Hannold along to meet Colin and Gillian. Grandma seemed to be pretty taken with them:


Of course Grandma and Grandpa Uhl seemed kind of partial to them as well:


Then, later in the week Extraordinary Aunt Sharon and Great-Uncle Ray stopped by to meet the little ones:

Sleep Update

Fortunately for Mummy and Daddy, Colin & Gillian have slept much better the last two nights. We are just on watch for more plotting.

Also, Colin has his belly button now and is teasing his sister about not having hers' yet.

Baby Photo Shoot (or the Morning After Mommy and Daddy Get No Sleep)

Our story begins on Thursday, when the unsuspecting family had an appointment with the Lactation consultant. Mom and Dad packed up the (very hungry) family and headed in to Mercy Hospital, arriving there around 10:30 (which was about an hour past when C&G were supposed to eat). Of course neither Colin nor Gillian felt that this was an equitable situation, and just like many people who feel that they've been done wrong, the Twins decided to let everyone in the registration lobby, the hallways, and the elevators at the hospital know that they had been sorely afflicted.

The lactation consultant, however, took sympathy on them and set them right to eating. Fully satiated, C&G determined that the car ride back home provided the perfect setting to begin a nap... and to ensnare Mom and Dad in a heinous trap. The little angels were perfectly asleep upon arriving home, and Mom and Dad (still a little naive) said "They're sleeping so well, let's have some lunch and take a nap ourselves." Unfortunately for Mom and Dad, this was exactly what C&G had expected. The twins slept wonderfully in their car seats up until it was time for the next feeding, at which point, they ate well and returned to napping. Again, all in line with what we see now as a diabolical plan.

Mom and Dad, still as unaware as ever to the evil scheme evolving around them, let the younglings sleep undisturbed until it had come to pass that another feeding was due. Eating well and seeming drowsey, C&G fooled Mom and Dad into letting them go right to sleep again. At this point company came by to see the new members of the family and to bring Mom and Dad some dinner. While the company held and admired C&G, the twins continued their diabolical plot and largely slept until their next feeding and that's when they sprang their trap...

After eating this last time, C&G decided to be a just a little cranky and take just a little while longer to go to sleep. Then, about an hour later at midnight, the full and horrible nature of their plan became apparent: the two of them would scream their heads off for next three and one-half hours solid. Colin, obviously the more sympathetic of the two, decided that Mom and Dad had probably learned their lesson and decided that he should return to sleep. Gillian, who was likely the mastermind behind this dreadful plot, didn't agree with Colin and took it upon herself to scream solo for another two hours. The end result of all of this drama was that Mom and Dad ended up with maybe an hour of sleep each between Thursday night and Friday morning.

On Friday Morning C&G had their one-week check-up and weight check with the pediatrician. Mom and Dad relayed the entire horrible story to the pediatrician, along with Mom's suspicion that maybe the pizza that had been consumed for dinner didn't sit well with the younglings. The pediatrician, however, immediately saw through the unfortunate events of the previous 24 hours and illuminated the actual outlines of the plot to Mom and Dad, including the fact that Mom and Dad were key players in bringing about their own downfall. The kindly doctor recommended that Mom and Dad try to keep C&G awake longer during the day so that they will be more tired during the night and early morning.

With this advice in hand, Mom and Dad returned home, bent on keeping the younglings from excessive daytime sleeping and a repeat of their nefarious plot from the previous day. Since I had promised Jessica earlier that we would have a baby photo shoot sometime this weekend, we used some of our awake time (though you wouldn't be able to tell that from the photos) to take some more photographs for Jessica and anybody else who might be interested. So without further ado:



Just so you know who is who, Colin is pictured on the left and Gillian is pictured on the right. I liked these in black and white and I think I'm going to print an 8.5x11 of one to take to work. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, though they do point out to me that I need some kind of reflector to get a little more fill light (probably a pillow case and some sort of frame).