Halfway there!

Our little twins hit the 19-week mark last Friday. Since twins can't cook for more than 38 weeks that means we're already halfway to meeting them! And they already got their first twin-specific present:

Onesies from Andy's boss. One says CTRL-C, and the other says CTRL-V. These IT people are already turning them into little geeks!

According to my pregnancy app*, each baby is over half a pound and 9 inches long. That's a pound of baby in there, and their combined length is equal to that of a full-term baby. Crazy. They must be getting pretty squished in there. They are making their presence known. Baby A is a calm little tap dancer who gives little pokes to say, "Hi! I'm still here!" He especially likes to do this when I chug a glass of cold water. Baby B is a crazy break dancer who is already karate chopping hard enough to make his movements seen from the outside. I'm super glad he's the one who is high enough to access my ribs because that will feel great later on.
(If the pronouns in that last paragraph confused you, it's because I've decided that there are two boys in here. The true penis count (<-- Cool Aunt Steph first coined that term) isn't until 10/3.)
Chad has been doing a good job of prepping for the babies. First, we had to get a car that can fit enough car seats. So Chad helped prep the Mustang for trade-in by making it so clean it looked brand new. (If "brand new" cars have broken A/C, and a gangster rap mix CD permanently jammed into the stereo.)

 

 

 

 

 

Now we're saving the planet with a fancy hybrid.

 

Don't judge me for his outfit. He was wearing a bathing suit and I needed something dry and comfy to change him into for naptime. Striped pajama shorts and his soccer shirt were the first things I grabbed. He woke up right when the new car showed up, and of course wanted to pose with it.

Chad suggested we name the new car Luke, after his little buddy.

Chad and Luke, washing rocks together at the science museum back in April.

 

We actually named it Hans after Hans Bethe, who studied nuclear fusion. (Get it?)

Chad knows where the babies are, and knows there are two of them. One day he shouted out to his whole daycare class, "My mommy has babies in her belly!" He wants to name them "Baby" and "Baby". I asked if he would like to name one after Taylor Swift, and he thought that was a good idea. I'm guessing the other baby will be named after Katy Perry. He likes to roar with her.

Also, since he's going to be a big brother, it's time for a more mature hair style.

We call this "Dinosaur Hair" because it's spiky like dinosaurs' horns.

He was more excited about his spikes than he was about the lollipop-- He offered to share the lollipop with me. He told me not to touch his dinosaur. After the hair salon, we had to walk clear across the shopping center to go to Target. At one point a big gust of wind came along, and he immediately put his hands up near his head, ducked behind me and cried, "My hair!" So I totally don't need a daughter to do things like pretty hairstyles and pedicures with. Chad is stepping up to the plate as my little fashionista. One day he saw a lady walking out of daycare and said, "Mommy, she has brown boots like you!" I was so proud. (And even better, one of the ways parents of newborn twins tell them apart is to put a little bit of nail polish on one twin's toenail. So even though these next two are probably boys, I will briefly have a pedicure buddy!)
On Friday night I went to the Moms of Multiples sale. In the past I've had to go early Saturday morning with the commoners, but now that I'm growing my own little litter of multiples, I got to join the club and go to the pre-sale! Hitting up the sale the night before was awesome. Besides getting first shot at the goods, there were no crowds to contend with (I had entire racks of clothes to paw through by myself, with no one else around!) and there was a rack set up with matching multiples outfits before they would be dispersed into the regular clothes for the public sale.

Since I don't know for sure that they're both boys, it was hard to find matching gender neutral outfits. But these will work for Christmas 2014 no matter who's in there! :)

 

I was hoping to find the double stroller we need, but it wasn't there, and the only other similar style stroller would have required buying two adaptors for our car seats, so in the end I wouldn't have saved any money.
But I still bought Chad three shirts, a Lightning McQueen robe, an Etch-A-Sketch, and a dinosaur floor puzzle,and the babies got the matching onesies, a hooded towel a Boppy Lounger, a Fisher Price swing, and a book on surviving your first year with twins, all for $51!  The swing was our best deal. Target sells this model for $139, but I only paid $15 for this one, and it's practically in perfect condition.

Wearing his steggy shirt with his completed steggy puzzle.

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Marbles, a kid museum in Raleigh. Here's Chad exploring the place!

The wood working area has actual drills and hammers and saws. I didn't let Chad hang around this area for too long.

 

 The kitchen area seemed safer. Here he is making egg and kiwi soup.

 

In a cage overlooking the first floor. Andy, who was fine letting Chad play with the saw, said letting him go in the cage made him nervous. I don't get it.

This was the dog house in the pet service area. He kicked the fake dogs out and hid in it himself.

 

Heading up the money ball shoot 

 

Driving a new friend in the armored vehicle 

At the top of the money ball shoot.

 

And of course, we went to the lawn care section. The museum was packed, but Chad was the only kid interested in playing here. 

He was pulling an imaginary cord to get it started.

 

At school, Chad has been busy in the "Older Twos" room. According to their syllabus, this year the class will focus on potty training, awareness of A.B.C's, counting, shapes, and having lots of fun. He won't graduate to the 3s until he has potty training down cold. I'm happy to report that we went a whole week with zero accidents at school, but that is partly because he has been refusing to produce solids at all until he is put back in a diaper at bedtime. Then a whole day's worth explodes out. I swear I have no idea who he gets this from. :)
This weekend Chad has already gone fishing with his Lightning McQueen fishing pole (they actually got a bite, but the fish got away!) and picked out his Halloween costume. It's a surprise, but your clue is that it's green. Like actually the color green, not green as in the euphemism for yuppies who buy hybrid vehicles. This afternoon we'll have a father-son football showdown when the Giants play the Panthers. The good news about them playing each other is that at least one of those teams will get their first win of the season. And the other team can say hello to 0-3. Chad and I think the Panthers will be victorious.

*By the way, if there are any app developers out there, someone needs to make a twin-specific pregnancy app. The app I have can only count down to an obsolete due date. And today's tip of the day said, "By 20 weeks, your uterus will be up to your belly button!" Thanks for the tip, but with two in here that happened about two months ago.