We did it!

We had a baby AND cut JJ's hair... it's been quite a month! Samantha Kay was born on June 3rd at 5:26 pm.. She was a healthy 8 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long. Almost 4 lbs more than JJ and 5 lbs more than Alexis was. She's been great--we're amazed at how awesome having a full-term baby is--and only one-at-a-time. Of course, she's not on much of a schedule and the twins were NICU-scheduled from the start. But she doesn't need any medications, no apnea monitors or oxygen tanks and no pumping for me! Even though it wasn't planned, we're excited to have her join our family, and we couldn't be more in love! My parents were able to come out for 10 days or so after Samantha was born and the twins loved it (though maybe not as much as I appreciated it!)

Just a couple of weeks after Samantha came home, we ventured out to the local kids-haircut place and took the plunge of chopping off JJ's hair--we figured why not do it while my parents were here. We were all shocked at the result... the kid looks completely different, but it's definitely grown on us and now when we take him swimming, he doesn't have to always swat away his hair while floating. Not to mention how much more clean it is (no more stray corn found camouflaged in his hair). But our baby boy is now more grown up than ever :(

A couple of funny stories from this month:

• JJ and Alexis give us a lot of grief and challenge our nerves almost daily, but one day they had me both awestruck and, I'll admit, a little proud. They recently learned how to leverage their body weight and open the refrigerator (luckily they don't get in there too often). So one afternoon after I fed Samantha, I come out to the living room to find them with a container of peas and carrots they had ransacked from the fridge. (Mind you, there was also a container of toffee right next to the veggies). They had gotten a couple of spoons and were devouring the vegetables like they were candy! I have proof if you don't believe me (I need to upload the pics to dropshots).

• When Mike brought Alexis and JJ up to the hospital to see Samantha, they were both pretty excited and ran to greet me and the baby. Alexis, however, immediately poked her sister right in the eye. Of course, Mike and I both gasped and yelled in unison, "No! No poking the baby in the eye!" So, for the next few weeks (and even now), whenever Alexis comes over to Samantha, she'll inquire "No poke eye?" and thankfully, has listened to the reproach. But hopefully, Samantha's nickname won't become some version of "no poke eye" because Alexis seems to really like reminding herself.

• As many of you may know, Pampers utilizes Sesame Street characters for their graphics. Well, Alexis has somehow formed quite the affinity for having cookie monster on her diaper. Unfortunately for us, elmo, grover, ernie, and big bird share the spotlight with cookie monster. So only 1/5 of the diaper packages have the coveted cookie monster front-and-center. Normally, we could just "force" the other diapers on Alexis or "convince" her that grover is really just an emaciated cookie monster. However, Alexis is becoming too smart and independent. It all started one morning when she came downstairs and ransacked our alternate diaper changing station and proceeded to take her elmo diaper off and demand the superior diaper. It culminated the day I came up to get her from her nap and found her sans clothes and with a slightly skew diaper on. I also saw that there were dozens of diapers on the floor. Turns out, she had stripped her clothes off and pulled the diapers from the changing table (she could reach it through the slats in the crib). She found the cookie monster diaper and had put it on herself. Of course the old diaper was found in jj's crib.

• Alexis and JJ are also showing signs that their ready to potty train.. both tell us when they need to go #2 and will go if we put them on the toilet. If they don't have a diaper on (during "naked baby" time or while swimming) they will hold their pee and run to the toilet if they have to go (and go once they're on). Also, Alexis recently during her nap-time (she often wakes before JJ and has extra time to herself) took off her diaper and put her shorts back on sans diaper. When I went to get them and saw that she had taken her diaper off (but thoughtfully put her shorts back on) she said she didn't need a diaper. Well, they may be ready, but we're not! So until Oct/Nov, we'll be putting them in diapers (I'll be driving out to Utah in September and don't want to deal with every-hour-potty-stops).

• In order to stop the crib shenanigans (which includes JJ jumping into Alexis' or visa versa), we installed crib tents. We'll be happily keeping them in their cribs until they're at least 3. With a new baby, having a place to contain them during nap and nighttime (not to mention during tantrums) is a godsend!

• Another funny thing about the twins is they've discovered baby einstein videos. We have a few that we got before they were born, but never really showed it to them. One day recently, however, they found the DVD's and asked to watch. The instantly fell in love. They call them "music" and will ask to watch "music" over all the other shows they're allowed (signing time, sesame street, chuggington, etc.). This pleases us immensely because the DVDs we have are the early ones, where the video consists of simple images set to classical music. So when they're watching them, it's actually pleasing to listen to.

Life with three is definitely different, but I'm enjoying my time off work and have even successfully taken all three out by myself on a number of different occasions already. One day we walked/jogged 2 miles to a friends house for a play-date (Mike needed the mini-van that day for work) in our new three-seater Valco stroller. Another day we went to the park and then to Chick-fil-a for dinner (that outing was a near-disaster at the end though since Samantha needed to nurse at the same time Alexis decided to have a break-down). We went grocery shopping together and took dinner to a friend of mine who just had her own little guy. The grocery shopping was an adventure: Alexis was again having a bad day so was crying in the shopping cart; samantha was sleeping in her carseat also on the shopping cart--not much room left for groceries. I was soooo grateful that JJ was near-perfect, staying by my side and not touching anything the whole time. When we left the store, it was poring down rain, and we all got soaked loading up the car, but we survived! Finally, I took them to see the fireworks last night on my own. I wore Samantha in the bjorn and kept the twins in the stroller. I definitely got a lot of comments and stares (or maybe looks of pity). But JJ and Alexis were amazingly good and they enjoyed the fireworks and concert/carnival--they danced and sang and, most importantly, stayed by my side while out of the stroller. It was their first time seeing fireworks and we had an awesome view on the pearland high school football field!

Another long post... but a lot to report!