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.

22 Months Old!

22 months old (calendar age) already! Hard to believe, but with (most) of the preemie challenges behind us, we've settled into a pretty normal routine. These days, Mom gets the kids ready and drops them off for daycare most mornings. I pick em' up in the afternoons and take them home for a little more playtime and then make them dinner. We do baths and pajamas, and then a bottle and some reading before they head off to bed around 7:00 or so. (We're looking to ween them off the bottles over the next month or so.)

On weekends, we usually head to the park or go somewhere. Of late, we've been taking the kids to a children's play gym called Gymboree where they goof around and play. We usually take them out for lunch -- the kids both love eating quesadillas from our local Mexican joint. Although they typically throw most of the food I prepare for them either on the floor or at me, they do a pretty good job when they eat out. Maddy especially loves to look around and wave and blow kisses at the people in the restaurant.

The next big step is to get the kids swimming. They both enjoy the water, and I figure once they are decent swimmers, we can look into buying the "family raft" for some very mellow floats on mild whitewater. That's probably 5 or 6 months away at least -- maybe a year. We'll see.

4/12/2010 - Maddy and Mom getting ready for bed.

Maddy after bath.

Clearly his father's son, Milo loves to wash his hands repeatedly.

4/12/2010 - Maddy doing a diaper check on Milo. Hopefully it was all clear. M&M hang out in at home during a wet NorCal spring day.

The living room gets taken over.

M&M at Sadie Dey's Cafe in Oakland. The whole business model of Sadie Dey is pretty brilliant - provide a place for parents to enjoy a coffee while the kids play. Mostly it's a lot of fun, the problem is that on a rainy day the place is packed to the gills with damp, screaming toddlers. Still fun, just a little hectic.

I'm really surprised that no one has opened one of these places here in Alameda, who's unofficial slogan is "Alameda, where hipsters go to breed." We've got five high end children's clothing shops within two blocks of each other, but no hipster coffee joint with a playground in it.

The kids love the play kitchen. They spend about half an hour taking out and putting in a plastic chicken in the freezer. Who wouldn't?

Milo enjoys his fruit cup at Sadie.

4/11/2010 - Maddy playing in the courtyard.

4/11/2010 - The Pixie. Even with the rainy days, we're still seeing more sunshine and Maddy seems to be getting blonder and blonder.

4/15/2010 - Milo and Maddy at daycare during a Cowboy Jared visit. We're lucky enough to have a daycare on base within a five minute walk of Dad's office. Once a week, the signing Cowboy Jared comes for a visit. Maddy in particular, but Milo too, really loves to dance around and clap. I think she was a little distracted during this visit because Dad was there too.

Maddy sits closest to Cowboy Jared and Milo sits in the front row too.

Sing along with Cowboy Jared. This guy must have the greatest job in the world. Yet another reason for me to hate my high school guidance counselor -- he completely failed to mention the possibility of becoming a singing cowboy. I sincerely hope M&M consider this option -- it would beat law school by miles!

4/17/2010 - M&M at Gymboree. It was "through" day at Gymbo -- which means the whole theme is to get the kids to go through things -- hoops, tunnels, etc.

Milo and Mom bang along to the music at Gymbo.