OCS

Brian and his buddy Mike left for Officer Candidate School today. They are headed to Brian's parent's house for a couple of days (and to a Red Sox vs. Yankees game!) before reporting to OCS on Sunday. I have Brian's mailing address at OCS so if anyone would like it just let me know!

Leaves

Brian has been working very hard on our back yard. We have a huge fenced in yard with a lot of trees, which means a lot of leaves! It has taken about a month and over 70 bags, but he's finally done! The twins love their big back yard! Here is a photo of the last 41 bags of leaves!

15 months

The twins had their 15 month well baby check-up and it was the most traumatic experience I think we've ever had with them. The first problem was that their appointment was running late (so it ended up cutting into afternoon nap time), the next issue was that someone thought an appointment with fussy twins would be a great time to teach a new guy how to measure, weigh, check temperatures, etc during a well baby check-up. This resulted in everything being repeated 2 or 3 times (on each kid!) until the new guy got the hang of it. It was very frustrating and needless to say the twins were screaming hysterically. We finally got to the exam room only to find out the Doctor is running late due to an emergency. Luckily Parker had calmed down long enough for the exam, however next up for him was a follow up chest xray from his pneumonia. This just sent him over the edge again. After the Xray, Parker calmed down long enough to go to immunizations. After the shots he screamed the whole way home. Rylee did not stop screaming from the time we got to the clinic until we put her in the car for the ride home, but once she was in the car she was happy as could be!

15 month stats...
Parker is 25 pounds and in the 75th percentile for height
Rylee is 22.5 pounds and in the 99th percentile for height

Golf

The twins each got a set of plastic golf clubs from the Easter Bunny this year. This morning after our stroll around the neighborhood in the wagon the twins decided they needed to practice their swings (and of course Daddy agreed and happily joined in!).

Cloth Diapers

As most of you know we use cloth diapers. We LOVE them. We love the fact that they are inexpensive, good for the environment, and great for the twins' little bums. Cloth diapering today is nothing like using the cloth diapers and pins of the past. There are All-In-Ones (AIO) that go on just like a disposable with velcro or snaps, there are pocket diapers that are similar to AIOs, but you can insert added layers of absorbency, and there are prefolds with convenient velcro or snap diaper covers. All of these options come in tons of cute colors and prints. Washing them is super easy too! After trying out all kinds and brands of cloth diapers I have found what works best for us and I've learned to sew my own! I found patterns and online diaper sewing stores to buy all of the materials. Below is a picture of Parker showing off one of his new diapers. The ones I have made are AIOs and are awesome! They are trim fitting and more absorbent than any I have purchased (including disposables).

New Playhouse

I went to Walmart today to buy the twins an outdoor playhouse. They had one on display in the garden center so I asked if they had any more. The woman told me I needed to go to the toy department and ask them to get one from the back of the store. I did that and the toy department people looked at me like I had 3 heads! They went in the back and came back out and told me they have never had any of those playhouses in stock, but for some reason they had a display version. The manager then came out and told me I could have the display for half-price! The twins were so excited that we had to set the playhouse up in the rain and they played in the rain until bath time. Here is a picture of their new house!

Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt

We all went to an Easter Party/Egg Hunt with our Mom's Club. The twins played with bubbles, a parachute, balls, wore leis, and ran all over a big grass field. The egg hunt for the little kids (under 2) consisted of scattered eggs and stuffed animals in the grass. The twins put about two eggs in their baskets before realizing there were goodies inside the eggs. After that, they were not interested in their baskets at all. They went from egg to egg opening each one and eating the contents before moving on to the next egg! After the egg hunt we all had lunch and cake and more play time! The kids wore themselves out and we all had a great afternoon nap!

Does it ever end????

Two weeks ago Parker woke up from his afternoon nap with a fever of 104. The Naval Health Clinic was already closed for the day so we took him to the after hours clinic and was told he had an ear infection. They gave us some antibiotics and sent us on our way. Saturday morning, he was still VERY fussy and still had a fever above 103. We kept his fever around 100 all day with Tylenol, however Sunday morning his fever was still above 103! (He had no symptoms other than looking/acting like he didn't feel well and the fever) We took him back to the after hours clinic and as standard procedure they used the pulse oximeter and he was in the 89-90 range (should be at least 97)! The doctor looked him over and ordered a chest x-ray. Turns out the poor little guy had Pneumonia! He had a breathing treatment (which got his pulse ox up to 95) and an injection of antibiotics at the clinic and we continued breathing treatments and antibiotics at home for the next week.

The good news is Parker's pneumonia seems to be gone. However... Brian ended up spending the night in the ER with Rylee last night. She had a typical day, went to bed easily, and then around 10:30pm I thought I heard Parker moaning so I went in to roll him over (he had fallen asleep on his belly with his bum up in the air). But, when I went in, it was Rylee "snoring". We both looked at her and thought it was cute. Then we went to bed and about 10 minutes later Rylee started coughing and stood up crying. I went to get her and when I picked her up she was breathing really fast and wheezing every time she inhaled. She also would cough this horrible sounding (seal barking) cough and looked like she was in pain. Long story short, we called the navy and they sent us to the ER and after 6 hours Brian returned with Rylee...she has Croup. She had a breathing treatment at the hospital and will be on steroids and antibiotics for the next week. We are just hoping Parker doesn't get Croup!

I don't know what it is with my kids. They go from being perfectly fine to being all of a sudden sick! Parker went from fine to a 104 fever after an afternoon nap and Rylee went from fine to hardly breathing. I wish they'd give some warning that they aren't feeling well! They always seem to do this on a Friday night after the Naval health clinic is closed too!