Grocery Shopping

Going to the grocery store is always challenging with the kids. I usually have to push them around in the stroller and fit what I can in the space underneath. So the trips have been short and very few items...until today. They are old enough to sit up and small enough to fit side by side in the shopping buggy. I got to take my time and get a substantial amount of groceries. And the kids had a blast! Cameron was giddy the who time, just so happy to be facing mommy and Timothy was just rocking back and forth, back and forth...so happy not to be strapped in a stroller!

I took these with my phone camera so they aren't the best, but cute. Timothy kept looking at people walking by, I couldn't get him to look at me...

Motherhood Blessings

I guess you could say my approach to motherhood has been somewhat tepid. While I always wanted to have kids, I didn't really envision myself #1 being a stay home mom and #2 having such adorable, lovable kids. And like most things, I don't accept change very well. I envisioned having the babies, staying home a few months then dropping them off at day care and heading back to work. I wanted to go back to work because #1 it seems lazy to have kids and not work full time and #2 being a mom was much harder than my job as a pastry chef...I wanted to go back to work just to get away from two crying babies! But the Lord has really changed my heart, as well as the babies. Thank goodness He had a much better and more perfect plan for me than I did!! I am so in love with my children and am now seeing it is as a complete blessing to be able to stay home with them.

I was feeding them lunch the other day and at the end each feeding I give them a spoon and their sippy cup to play/practice with (still can't get the hang of the sippy cup). We had some fun just lingering and playing. I know most moms don't get to experience that kind of time with their children and I felt truly blessed that I'm able to. It's not an easy job and there have been and continue to be challenges for me but the rewards are far greater than I ever had as a pastry chef. I see their changes from day to day. I get to love on them 24/7. And I hope that love will equip them with an abundant amount of self confidence as they grow...knowing they are loved.

And I want to thank my husband all that he has done and continues to do that allows me to stay home with our children. You are such a gift to me and I treasure you.

Here are some pictures of our lunch last week...
playing with the spoons, working on aim


Timothy having trouble keeping his cup on the tray...Cameron trying to help grab it.


Timothy still having trouble keeping his cup on his tray...and both spoon are now on the floor.

Neighborhood Rec Center

We have a rec center just a few block from our house and every Friday they have kid's play time from 10:30-12pm. I meet up with another friend of mine, Yang, who has Jasper...he is 11mo. (We miss the first half because of nap and lunch time but try to get there as soon as we can.) They have a big gym there and spread out all sorts of push toys, play mats, tricycles, etc for the kids to play with. There is also an arts and craft room but the kids are still too small for that. At 11:30 all the toys and crafts are put away and the music time begins. Cameron loves the music time! They pass out tambourines and bells for the kids, roll out this huge boom box and play all sorts of fun music to dance and sing along.
While the twins are still a little too small for most of the activities, it's fun to just get them out and around other kids. Timothy just stares most of the time and Cameron tries to sing and dance along to the music. She goes crazy when "Wheels on the Bus" or "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" comes on. But we have to sit in the back because the music is a little too loud for our sensitive Timothy. But I can tell we'll be taking full advantage of all the center has to offer soon!
Here are some pic from our day yesterday.
the kids in the little push cars. They loved them but their feet don't hit the floor yet so they can't really go anywhere unless we push them...Timothy fell though the bottom yesterday..oops...

>Yang with the kids getting ready for music time with bells on their wrists. The kids kept trying to eat them! And Cameron dancing and loving the sing along...wish I had video of her.

New Bath Seats!

I decided to give the bath seats a try last night for bath time. The kids are getting long and their feet press up on the end of the baby tub, they arch and it's getting difficult to bath them in the smaller tub. And I was thinking two in the tub at once, that's gotta save some time instead of bathing one, dressing them and then bathing the other. Well, not so much. While the kids loved being the big tub and having a lot more toys to play with...I'm not sure sure they are ready. They kept sliding down in the seats and getting caught under the bars. They sit straight up in the seats so it was hard to lean their heads back to wash their hair, water kept getting in their eyes. And it's hard to move them around in the seats to clean all their nooks and crannies. Not to mention I had to put more toys in the tub for them to reach so there was a much bigger clean up. Oh, and I still had the bigger problem of having to leave one in the tub while I got the other dried, diapered and dressed. I didn't really like leaving one in tub alone, unattended.

So I think we'll go back to the baby tub tonight. I might skip the seats altogether and just move them up to the big tub in a few months when they can move around better...they're just so slippery when they are wet, I don't want them slipping all over the tub. I'll keep you posted...

Ick!

We found a food Timothy doesn't like...green peas! Funny that he likes the peas out of a jar but didn't like the peas I made, hum...
This is from a few weeks ago...I keep meaning to post it but something else always comes up. Young took the video and added his own dialogue...hope you don't get sea sick watching.

7 Months Old!

Sorry the 7 month update is a little late...but I didn't want to skip it because the twins are changing so much. They are so much fun right now!! I don't even really feel like a "mom", I feel more like a babysitter. We just play all day. Cameron has really come into her laugh now and it's great to see them interact with each other. Sometimes I'll hear them laughing and look over and see them cracking each other up. They light up when we walk in the room which is such an amazing feeling!

I can also see the kids beginning to get exited over certain things that are repeated everyday...Cameron has her favorite books...she gets excited when I pull them out and Timothy has his favorite toys, the rectangle and stacking rings.

But the most exciting change, at least for me as a mom, is the kids reach out for me now. As in they raise their arms when I come to pick them up, Timothy grabs my face and smashes his face against my cheek to kiss me or if I'm sitting on the floor with them they will sorta reach out and lean (fall) toward me to try and get in my lap. Ugh, I could eat them with a spoon!!

Here are a few other highlights:
Timothy has fallen in love with his Jumperoo.
Cameron loves music and singing. Young sings to her and she just lights up and even tried to sing along.
They now get excited when they see their car seats or stroller (Timothy even arches his back when he hears us unbuckle his seat...they are so smart!)
Cameron is staying in the nursery without Mommy. Yeah!
Timothy is still pretty sensitive to loud noises. He hates the vacuum cleaner, fire trucks and Cameron testing the rage of her voice in high pitch...that always brings tears
Cameron loves to be tossed around around by Daddy...she's a little dare devil.
We all survived the kids first cold.
They are eating more and more foods...veggies, fruit, chicken, beans and cottage cheese.
Cameron is rolling over from front to back...zero tummy time!
Timothy is learning how to scoot around on his tummy...he'll be crawling soon, better start the baby proofing...

The Swings

We headed to the park on Sunday afternoon to treat the kids to the swings for the first time. The park right by our house has the bucket swings that babies can swing in. Another twin mom told me she puts both her babies in the same swing and they love it...so of course I had to try. The kids had a blast. We also tried the slide but they didn't really see the fun in that. I think we're a ways away from the full playground experience.
I wanted to put them in the dirt/sand and let them get a little dirty but Daddy wasn't on board with that. (We'll have to sneak over there one day while Daddy is at work..he, he, he...)

Dinner Out

Having a baby, much less multiples, greatly effects the type of restaurants you can go to and the time of evening you can eat. And now that the kids are eating solids...it's even more challenging. This was our first outing with the kids and feeding them dinner at a restaurant. We've been out with them before but just needed to pack bottles. This time it was bibs, rice cereal, veggies, bottles, sippy cups and spoons. (I got a lunch box to carry all their food and supplies in b/c the diaper bag is getting maxed out.) We had dinner at a local Korean place where they know us and really helped us out. It all went smooth and we had a great time. Of course we got there at 5pm to get settled before the kids needed to eat. The kids sat in high chairs for the first time and seemed to really enjoy sitting up at the table. And once they were fed they had fun just playing in their chairs...allowing us time to enjoy our dinner. Here are a few pics from our evening!
notice the tables behind us are all empty..we got there so early...

Feeling Better!

Everyone is feeling better now and Young is home from his business trip! I hope we'll be getting back on track now and have some fun this weekend!!! Yeah!

I love Kaiser Nursers!!

I just have to give a shout out to any Kaiser phone nurses that might read our blog. I LOVE YOU!!! These ladies are the best. You can call Kaiser's advice nurses 24/7 with any questions you might have and they can advise you over the phone or let you know if it's serious enough to been seen. I've called them at least a dozen times over the past week and well over two dozen times since we've had the kids. Each time they are so nice, so helpful and so reassuring that you, the mom, did the right thing by calling. They are perfectly trained to make me feel like I'm not over reacting to whatever minor issue I'm calling about. And they go out of their way to let me know I'm doing a great job as a mother. They must know how inadequate and helpless moms feel when they can't heal their sick child.

I won't even start on how much I adore our pediatrician...we are so blessed.

I took Cameron to the doctor today because she just seem to be getting worse and having more problems. Turns out she has pink eye, really bad eczema brought on by the cold, and head congestion. I've been sleeping with her in our bed just we are there when she wakes up and can't breath. No cold medicine for babies under 2yr...gone are the days of Vic's Vapor Rub for babies.

Update...

Sorry we haven't had a post in a while...a nasty cold has spread through the family, sparing me...so far. Timothy was the first to get sick and it seemed to get worse as each person caught it. Young got it next and missed a few days of work and now Cameron has it...I think she got it the worst. Last night she could hardly sleep b/c she was so congested and couldn't breath. We had the humidifier going, had her elevated and sucked out her nose about 100 times trying to open up her air ways. Poor baby girl. We slept with her in our bed last night (first time) b/c she was having a hard time.

It's so sad seeing the kids sick, just breaks my heart, but I'm learning a lot about being a parent. I've really felt like a mommy this past week...just holding them while they didn't feel good and knowing what they need for comfort. I can see some of their individual personalities come out too. Timothy, like me, kinda took it in stride and kept going. Cameron, like Young, really needs to be babied when she is sick, she had to be held constantly.

So all that to say there hasn't been much activity going on at the Ko house nor has anyone felt very photogenic. There's been a lot of singing, lap holding and yes, a little TV for the kids. (Cabin fever set in yesterday and I broke down and let them watch a little just to distract them. Some show I found that was just puppies playing. The kids loved it and we had total silence in the house for about 5 minutes!) I probably won't get much up this week either, Young is out of town all week. I hope to get a 7mo update done, so stay tuned for that.

More?

So I've been trying to get Sara to have more kids. Sure I'm not the one that's carrying around the critters for 9 months or so, but have you seen our kids? They are so cute. I want to cherish each moment and yet I can't wait until they get a bit older.

I often times have 'future moments' when I envision fishing with Timothy, shopping with Cameron or whatever moments would come to mind.

Oh yeah, about having more kids... Well, we'll see. Sara says she doesn't want to think about it until the kids are at least 1 years old. Stay tuned...

Timothy's new favorite toy....his toes! (with or without socks, no difference to him) He can play and suck on them for hours. This makes Cameron happy...she can keep her toys.

It seems Cameron has really turned a corner in her eating. It took a while for her to warm up to eating, but even then we had to coax her each time and only got a few bite in her. But now...look at her go! She actually is EXCITED to eat!!.

Annual Chrurch Picnic

Our annual church picnic was actually two weeks ago but I'm just getting around to posting pictures...sorry. In the past years there haven't been any babies around, just alot of newly married couples. Now our church is going through a baby boom. So far in the past years we have added 7 new babies! All the families with babies kinda sat in one large blanketed area. The only bad thing was none of the kids got their afternoon naps...so around 2pm there was a whole lot of screaming (ours included) going on. Our kids made quite an exit...Timothy was screaming his head off on the way to the car but they both were asleep before we got out of the parking lot! But we had a great time and so did the kids.

The bumbo seats were a hit!

Here is Timothy with his new friend Caleb. There are four babies in this picture...Caleb, Timothy, Cameron and Olivia in the back.

The kids as we were leaving...so tired....

FINALLY!!

Cameron rolled over, finally!! Basically she rolled while I was writing the last post. I had her on her tummy, which she HATES, she was fussing and then I noticed the fussing stopped...I looked over and she was on her back. I rolled her to her tummy a few more times and she would flip right back over. Great, this means she won't get any tummy time in now that she has figured out how to roll...but I'm so excited she is rolling. I was kissing her all over and cracking her up. Maybe she was rolling just to get all the kisses!

Timothy's new favorite toy....whatever toy Cameron has! He's figured out how to work his way over to her and snag whatever is in her hand. As soon as she picks up another one he is right there ready to take it. I'm just glad she is so easy going about it....for now...

Making Baby Food

Carrots, Yummy!

Now don't get me wrong...I wasn't on board with the whole "make your own baby food" at first. After all, I ate pureed peas out of jar so it must be good enough for my kids. And it is just as good...but it's a whole lot cheaper to make your own! And it's way easier than I thought. A lot of the moms in our twins club make their own and are always talking about how easy it is and how you get so much food from such little amount of veggies. And another mom suggested I get used to making their own food because I would soon be making breakfast, lunch and dinner for them anyway...do it now while it's easy.

So I gave it a try...I mean, I am a chef...how hard can pureed veggies be? I got to the farmer's market every week anyway...I should really just give it a try...

It is soo incredibly easy and so amazingly cheap!! Let me do the math for you...I got at least 14 feeding out of $1.50 of organic carrots. That works out to about to roughly $.11 a feeding, split that in half per baby and your looking at about $.05 a baby. Baby food in the store cost anywhere from $.50 to $.85 a jar (depending on organic and what's on sale). Yeah, it's huge savings. And it really doesn't take much time. Just steam, puree in the blender and pour in ice trays. I need to get more trays now...I'm going crazy with the veggies. I got sweet potatoes, summer squash, apples, peaches and peas at the market today. Here is the carrots and sweet potatoes I did last week...start and finish...

Sharona's Videos

My friend Sharona came over one evening last week to get more practice for her upcoming job as a nanny. She often helps me out when Young is out of town, so she's a pro at our bedtime routine...she even knows the bath time song that I made up...
Anyway, I made the mistake of showing her how the video camera worked...she kept taking so much video of the kids. Here are two of the snippets she took. One is of me trying to wake Cameron up to burp her. She feel asleep eating her bottle and was out cold!



This other one is Timothy just after he ate...the best part is the very end...wait for it...