The Buckmaster Blog: August 2014

In the blink of an eye, spring was gone and we were into June and summertime! School was out for the summer and this meant that I got to spend each day, all day, with my favorite little ladies! As sad as I was to let such a wonderful group of kindergartners (and parents) go, I felt such relief and pure joy knowing that I would get to spend the summer days watching, learning and playing with my babies. As happy as I was to have this time, the fact that school was out meant something big -- Laura would no longer be staying with us during the week.

Her last official week was Memorial Day week -- May 28 - 31. I know she was feeling sad and I was too. She had been with us since the very beginning, like driving-me-to-the-NICU-when-I-couldn't-drive-to-see-the-girls-everyday beginning. She had been right there with me for the middle-of-the-night feedings, exhaustion, and just figuring this whole twin/baby/breastfeeding/new mom thing out. I know my mom would have given anything in the world to be here with us, too, and I know she is so thankful for Laura. I will never be able to repay Laura or express my gratitude. Although some wives would cringe at the thought of their mother inlaw spending four months with them, I enjoyed every second. And I know George enjoyed the time with his mom too. I may or may not have sobbed like a baby when she left on Friday, May 31st. It was silly because she was coming back that very next week to give me a day to run errands and get things done, but when she left that day, it was the closing of a chapter in all of our lives. My preemie newborn twins were no longer that. They were thriving in their fifth month of life. We were on a schedule and starting to get the hang of this twin thing (sort of--ha).

We are so thankful for Grandmother.

The girls' personalities continued to blossom in month five. Something I have failed to mention is that we spent a whole lot of time with Lindsey and EV. I can't express how nice it is to have a close friend (and neighbor) with a daughter just 11 days older. Lindsey and I have bounced so many thoughts, ideas, joys and frustrations off of each other and I think kept each other fairly sane. Most days ended with all five girls (two moms and three babies) sitting on the front porch visiting until the Dads got home. We also took the girls to the club just the two of us for lunch. They did so well! It was funny because we saw a girl there with three week old twins. She seemed so tired and commented that we seemed to "have it all together." I laughed to Lindsey that if she could have only see the three ring circus at my house of babies laying on pallets in the bathroom while I got ready and me singing every nursery rhyme in the book, she would retract her statement.

Month Five Stats:

Annabelle

Ashley

Annabelle - 15lbs, 6oz (45th percentile)
Ashley - 14lbs, 8oz (27th percentile)

Milestones/Development:

Month five was big because on Monday, June 9th, Annabelle rolled over (back to front) for the first time! She was so proud of herself. She had been close for a while and finally did it! Ashley wasn't as interested in being on the move like her sister, but she rolled back to front on June 28th. She was in shock when she did it and it was so cute! We had our four month shots this month and they were no fun. It took us about a week to get back on our sleeping schedule. We had to make a trip to Dr. Worsley because we had an icky cold and cough and mom wanted to make sure our lungs sounded fine. Bonus was that we got our weight checked! The girls continued to be so charismatic and show us their sweet and playful little personalities. This is such a fun age! They also continued (and probably the frequency increased) grabbing EVERYTHING! Teething was a big, not-fun happening this month. Although we never saw any teeth, our girls seemed to be pretty uncomfortable, which prompted mommy to buy not one but two Sophie the Giraffe teething toys at $20 each. Daddy was not as impressed by the expensive "chew toys" (his words) as I was. However, I reminded him that I was the one here with two fussy, miserable little girls all day and I was DESPERATE for some relief for all of us!

Annabelle rolls over!

Ashley rolls over!

Other Happenings:

The second weekend in June was Crestival, which is the annual member/guest golf tournament at River Crest. The girls had their first overnight stay without Mom and Dad at their grandparents' house in Granbury. George and I celebrated 6 years of marriage on that Saturday. Of course, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Dom, Kathy and Charlie all joined in the fun at PawPaw and Grandmother's house.

On June 11th, the girls made their first big road trip down to West Columbia to visit Nonnie and Pawpaw. We put them to bed in their car seats and they slept until Pearland. They did great the whole weekend and were showered with lots of love at a sip-and-see at Nonnie and Pawpaw's house. They loved meeting their West Columbia friends! They went swimming for the first time at Aunt Coco's parents' pool and loved it.We also got a big surprise from Aunt Coco and Uncle Matt--we will be getting a COUSIN in February 2015!!!! WOW! How exciting! Oh what memories to be made and trouble to get into! We had a great time and the girls did pretty well on the right home until we were about 30 minutes away. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!

Ashley snoozing on the way to West Columbia.

Annabelle snoozing on the road trip.

We are going to be BIG cousins!

We love swimming!

The girls made more trips to church this month and did great. We have fallen in love with Arlington Heights Methodist Church and look forward to joining and having the girls baptized there in the fall.

Daddy and Annabelle before church.

Mommy and Ashley before church.

We had a fun swimming day at the club with Aunt Rachel while Daddy and Uncle Dom played golf. Even though we were only in the baby pool about 20 minutes (after a couple of hours of preparation), it was totally worth it and everyone took a nap afterwards.