"Hey Doggie!"

Milo would like to shout out to all his peeps with his standard greeting - "hey doggie!" Whether you are a Mom, Dad, other kid, teacher, Elmo, a cat, airplane, or -- yes -- a dog, Milo will likely shout you this happy greeting. Why? Who knows? He's two after all. I guess I should be a better parent and work on teaching him not to say it, but it's cute and funny and, after all, so what?

In recent news, Milo had his two-year follow-up clinic with the doctors at Alta Bates this past week. Remember that he's not technically a 2-year-old developmentally until September, nonetheless he appears to be almost completely caught up to 24 months. In most categories he tested in the normal range, though he was below the cut in a couple areas. A lot of the performance trouble was due to his lack of cooperation. The doctor had arrived 40 mins late due to unforeseen traffic, and Milo was pretty bored and tired by the time the assessment started. All in all, it was an unexpectedly great result -- especially given the circumstances. Maddy will go for her assessment in the late summer or early fall. I think we expect her to perform even a little better than Milo since she's definitely the better talker right now.

Photo courtesy of Sanford & Son Moving, Inc.

We are finally moved out of the old house and into the new digs. It involved lots of trips with a U-Haul trailer followed by one big trip with a moving van. Luckily, we finished up relocating all the stuff to the new joint in time to have a party for the kids over the 4th of July weekend. That gave us a chance to have a few friends by and break in the back yard. Cake was eaten, beers drank, and children froliced. I'll call it a success!

The singing of "Happy Birthday" with the help of good friends.

Milo shows off his super powers.

Notice in the above picture that Milo is hanging onto my thumbs without any help from me. It's crazy but the kid can hang on for about 25 seconds before he laughs so hard that he ends up letting go.

M&M take turns pushing each other around in their stroller cars.

Milo gives his friend Nicola a ride in his wagon. Maddy's not as angry as she looks, she just doesn't like taking turns.

But she does like cake -- a lot.

Milo showing off for Nicola...

...and flying high.

17 July 2010

This weekend the kids also had the chance to hang out with triplets Sophie, Gabby, & Faith and their parents, John and Carina. And I thought our grocery bill was getting rough. Good times!

17 July 2010 - "Mod Maddy" - the standard baby with sunglasses shot.

17 July 2010 - Milo looking humble

17 July 2010 - Maddy

All of a sudden Maddy really likes to make goofy faces for the camera. It's bound to make things more entertaining for future posts.

A slightly less silly shot taken moments later during the same meal.

If I haven't said it before, it's one of my greatest hopes that Maddy will eat exactly the same way she does now during her first date, i.e., attempt to cram absolutely everything she can into her mouth, chew until she doesn't feel like it any more, and then take the remainder out with her hand and fill her mouth again with something else off her plate. It's quite impressive. She and Milo both love to feed me and Elaine, but there's nothing worse then realizing she's just put something in my mouth that's been well chewed before. Mmmmmm...

My Lunch with Maddy.

Of late, Milo has begun telling jokes in an effort to keep us all entertained. His vocabulary is still pretty limited, so he goes for physical humor. Above is one of his favorite bits, the "Pretend Sneeze." It's cracks him (and us) up every time.

The parting shot. It's not always easy to tell whether the twins like each other very much. They play together a lot more these days and frequently greet each other enthusiastically in the morning, but they also argue over toys and hit and bite each other every so often too. It's nice to see an occasional hug just to make sure.

TWO!

15 June 2010 - The singing of Happy Birthday. (Bigger celebration to follow!)

Happy, happy birthday to our beloved little Milo and Maddy. Oh how far they've come! It's hard to believe it's been two years since the beginning of the journey in NICU Room 11. In preparation for this post, we began looking back through our boxes of keepsakes from the early days, and we found the original signs posted on the babies' isolettes (see below). We thought they might offer a nice reminder of how far they've come since those early days, rather than rehashing all the babies have gone through. But, for those of you parents out there with a baby in the NICU, it's worth remembering that there's a lot to be hopeful about. Take a look back at the substantial challenges M&M faced and see just how well things have turned out for the little fighters.

Milo - notice his first hospital ID bracelet is still taped on.

Maddy - the little heart on the bottom left was one of her monitor sensors.

And since it's the kids birthday, it's worth taking a moment to again thank all the great nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, lactation consultants, social workers, nutritionists, admin staff, and everyone else at the Alta Bates NICU who helped to take such great care of M&M and make us feel welcome during their first four-and-a-half months of life. The gift basket of chocolate we left probably doesn't quite cover it.

It's been a while and this seemed like a good time to plop the kids back in the rocker for another photo with Mr. Bear. It's been six months since the last picture, and we figured there'd be a pretty dramatic difference. Turns out, not so much (see http://miloandmadeline.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html). By the way, here is the very first Mr. Bear picture for comparison: http://miloandmadeline.blogspot.com/2008/08/long-march-to-september.html.

Madeline Ava - 15 June 2010

The Mr. Bear pictures have gotten no easier to take. This was the best one Dad could get before Maddy chucked the bear at me, stood up, and started swinging the rocker back and forth maniacally. Ah, age two.

Although the kids are definitely getting bigger, most of the advances are coming in the area of skills and language. Maddy appears to have leap frogged over Milo in that department, particularly in the area of language. Maddy's vocabulary seems to grow a bit everyday, and she occasionally links words together into 3+ word phrases. Her voice is still kind of hoarse and a bit Joplin-esque. She also loves to sing, so maybe we have star a on our hands.

What else can we say about the little girl? She's very, very friendly. She rarely passes by someone without waving and saying "HI!" She loves giving hugs and blowing kisses. She loves singing and music and books -- her current favorite is Is Your Mama a Llama? She loves to say "no" in a deep, gravelly voice to any statement that sounds like a question. Here's proof:

Notice she declined to answer that last question. Very concerning.

Maddy also loves to talk. (Huh, where'd she get that from?) It's really funny. She's clearly trying to tell a story, but doesn't know how to say what she wants, so it just sounds like she's rambling on in some foreign language. Very cute. Maddy is also nuts about playground slides. She loves to jump up and down and is remarkably good at it. She's developed a pretty good sense of rhythm too; she can now clap along with a lot of her favorite songs.

Milo Camper - 15 June 2010

Milo has also made good progress over the last couple months. He's saying bunch of words and occasionally using two word phrases ("all done," "no more," "hi daddy," etc.). He's quite a bit more reserved and shy than Maddy, but he loves to laugh and often gets hysterical when being tickled or when watching the Wiggles. Milo is the consemate engineer - he loves to tinker with things. We have no doubt that by this time next year we wake up and find him taking apart the stereo or some other expensive pices of electronic gear, not unlike Dad did as a child. Milo likes to look at books too, but not as much as Maddy. His current favorite is Quiet Loud. Milo is more into swings than slides, and, though he does like to rough house, he's a little more cautious than sister at the moment.

Like pretty much every two-year-old, M&M both constantly like to test us. If you ask them to stop banging their spoon, they stop, look at you and then tap it lightly to see how far they can push it. Same thing with jumping on the couch or bed (their favorite indoor past time). If told to sit down, they will. But slowly they'll climb to their feet while keeping an eye on Mom and Dad to see what we'll do about it. Same with lifting their plates, banging cups, throwing toys, and playing with electrical cords. Testing is definitely the order of the day. On the flip side, they also really like to help out. Whenever they see us cleaning up, they like to pretend to vacuum, mop, and put things away. The problem with the latter is that many things around the house disappear and reappear in various drawers around the house -- car keys, toys, brushes, pretty much anything portable.

Finally, as some of you already know, we are moving houses this month. We'll still be living in Alameda, but our new place has a yard and a lot more space for the kids to run around, along with some nice amenities for Mom and Dad like a built in dishwasher, multiple bathrooms, and adequate closet space. We're sad to leave our lovely, historic Storybook style house, but are looking forward to a few of life's more modern amenities, too. The move has put our birthday celebrations on hold for a few weeks, but we're planning a party for the kids over 4th of July weekend at the new pad. Stay tuned.

Almost Two Years

At home watching Wiggles

Maddy occasionally hugs Milo. It's very cute, but Milo isn't very impressed with it.

M&M during a snack break at the Oakland Farmers Market - 29 May 2010

All loaded into the car seats and ready to go. 29 May 2010

Milo feeling giggly after eating yogurt. Notice the lad has his first skinned knee.

M&M enjoying their first wagon ride in their birthday gift from Grandpa.

Milo at Fairyland in Oakland - 3o May 2010

Maddy loves looking at animals. Here she tries to pull herself into the enclosure to visit with the donkey. Fairyland - 30 May 2010.

Here Maddy waves frantically at the llama to make sure she gets noticed. The llama noticed alright but wasn't terribly excited about. Fairyland 3o May 2010.

More Fairyland pictures.

Maddy wasn't sure what language the llama spoke, so she went with sheep -- "baa ba ba, baa baa ba, ba ba ba." The llama didn't appear to speak that particular dialect.

Post bath Milo.

Maddy gets a little crazy before bed time.

M&M visiting Little Farm at Tilden Park in Berkeley. 31 May 2010.

Maddy doing laps at the playground at Tilden Park.

The Month In Pictures

13 May 2010 - Maddy finds an old pair of my eye glasses. That's right, I wore those things for a few years back in college. Why? Well, my good buddy Matt dared me to. They're only slightly smaller on my face.

9 May 2010 - Milo decides whether he wants to give the big slide a go. He's done it before, but not this day.

9 May 2010 - Milo enjoys making noise on the playscape.

25 April 2010 - Maddy digs deeper!

25 April 2010 - Milo tries to get every last bit.

13 May 2010 - Milo goes for his occupational therapy assessment. Despite the appearance, this room is not the chimp enclosure at the Oakland Zoo. Milo did pretty well -- he even showed off a few skills we didn't know he had, like kicking and catching a ball (albeit a very, very close throw).

8 May 2010 - Maddy takes a closer look.

8 May 2010 - Milo and Maddy play outside in the courtyard.

19 April 2010 - Milo in the kitchen while we prepare his pre-bedtime milk. Notice how curly his hair gets.

10 May 2010 - Maddy in the garden after getting home from daycare.

10 May 2010 - For some reason, whenever we get home, M&M run over to the neighbors house and hide in her foyer. The eventually come out and follow me.

19 April 2010 - M&M at the Tilden Park Farm in Berkeley.