10 Months! (and the first illness)

Milo & Maddy - 15 April 2009

The big news is that the twins are now 10 months old by the calendar, and they'll be 7 months corrected age on the 26th. They continue to make big steps forward -- Elaine and I were particularly impressed when Maddy completed our taxes and secured us a very tidy refund. She's just so advanced! We're also proud to announce that Milo has just mastered his second foreign language, and is being considered for early admission to Stanford (he wanted to stay local). OK, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but the kids are doing well overall.

The big news this week is that both babies are weathering their very first illnesses. Maddy developed a fever last Sunday, and although it didn't appear too serious the doctor asked Elaine to bring her in just to make sure. By the way, any time you mention the words "25 weeker," "compromised lungs" and "fever," you usually get a very quick call back from the pediatrician. Maddy was successfully fighting the virus, though, and other than a little Tylenol and an occasional hit off the inhaler, she's doing just fine. As these things tend to go, Milo caught the same bug, and by Tuesday he was registering the same symptoms as Maddy. The good news is that both babies went for a follow-up visit to the doctor this morning, and it looks like they are doing just fine. It's pretty nice to have the first illness more or less behind us.

In other news, Maddy continues to develop impressive fine motor skills. We've been trying to get her to wave hello and good-bye, and she seems to be taking to it. Occasionally she waves both arms together and it looks like she's conducting an orchestra.

A bigger Maddy - 15 April 2009

As the pictures show, Maddy is getting bigger and bigger and more and more smiley. Her reflux seems to be well under control now, and her disposition is much, much happier than in the early days. To be fair, she had plenty to complain about.

Milo - 15 April 2009

Taking the bear photos is usually a relatively easy lift with Milo, but the little guy has been pretty ornery this week due to the virus. He's typically all smiles, but this was as good as it got yesterday.

A couple more shots of the little guy from earlier in the week. By the way, we haven't given either of the babies a hair cut yet, that's just the way Milo's hair grows. It looks a little like he's wearing a toupée, doesn't it?

Parting Shot

Our primary nurses Janet, Annette, and Donna wished M&M a happy 10 month birthday and sent along this picture of them in front of Room 11 in the NICU. Those of you who have followed the blog for while probably recall that the babies called Room 11 home for the first few months of their life. It's where we first held them, bathed them, fed them. It's where both babies had their PDA operations and so much more. Pretty remarkable place in our lives, and these are three of the remarkable people who helped M&M to get big and strong.