It's hard to believe that our twins will be 22 months on Remembrance Day. It doesn't feel like they've been here that long, more like they were just born. They've changed so much and so very quickly. We've gone from teeny infants, to walkers, to talkers. Now we are entering a wonderful phase in which they can tell us what they'd like and talk about the world they see. I'm really loving communicating with my little cubs. It also seems true that your love continues to grow for your kids more and more as time goes by (I hear this is true until the teenage years - but thats a whole other story).
We just had our second Halloween, and this year we took the kids to a local community Halloween party. They seemed to like seeing the kids but were still a bit too young this year to go and play. They enjoyed some mini cupcakes, some candy and seeing all of the people. We picked out pumpkins for charity at the pumpkin patch as well. The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins with Grandma & Grandpa.
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| My sweet little kitty |
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| My adorable puppy |
This year we also went Trick-or-Treating for the very first time! We went up and down our new street with, Grandpa's help, while Grandma handed out candy. Claire & Hayden loved going door to door once they figured out what we were doing, and they even said "Thank You" at almost every house. They still hated wearing their costume hoods this year (I'm not certain that will ever change). Claire was a cute little black cat & Hayden was a fuzzy little brown dog. They also loved playing with the glowsticks we bought them but most of all they loved seeing all of the Halloween decorations on everyone's porches. Then when it was all done, we made pumpkin muffins together.
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| Hayden trick-or-treating with daddy's help |
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| Claire trick-or-treating with Grandpas help |
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| Making pumpkin muffins with Grandma & Grandpa |
The littlest Smeltz should be here in the next couple of weeks! As of today we are 37+3 & are in week 38 of pregnancy. We are still waiting for the nice surprise to see if we're having a girl or a boy to complete our little family. It seems as though our pregnancy has flown by this time and soon we will have three kids under age 2! (I may need to take up coffee drinking!) I sometimes wonder how exactly I am going to do this with three, but then I know we'll all figure it out together. I am beginning to get really excited to meet this new little person who has been living inside of my rather large belly for some time now. I'm still just as amazed by pregnancy as I ever was - but I know this is to be my last one. It is happy yet bittersweet in that our pregnancy is coming to an end soon and I will not experience this feeling of being kicked from the inside again. I am doing my best to enjoy babys movements and in the back of my mind I know this is actually the easy part. Caring for twin toddlers while very pregnant and with all of the changes we've experienced this year, has been nothing short of difficult, but I am also doing my best to enjoy my toddlers now while I have a bit more time to just sit and colour or cuddle them. The future will be wonderful and our family of five will make wonderful memories together - if my sanity can just survive the next year!
We have been getting everything prepared for baby's arrival. We have the hospital bags packed (one for mommy, the cord blood kit, and two diaper bags - one for a girl and one for a boy). We have the bassinet set up and ready to put into our bedroom for our first night home and we have furniture on order for the nursery, which we plan to use once baby is 6 months old. Our house has randomly stored baby things for a girl or a boy all over - two swings, two bouncy seats, two exersaucers, two travel size playpens, etc - all hand me downs from Claire & Hayden.
We have also hired a doula for the baby's birth this time and are looking forward to a smooth happy birth. We've also hired a separate doula for postpartum care, who will help with our kids as well as helping me with baby and doing some light cooking and cleaning. My mom is coming to stay again also for a little while, which will be a very big help until we can establish some sort of schedule. Then soon after it will be Christmas and we are hoping to have lots of family around for 2-3 weeks to help out. Looking forward to seeing everyone and introducing them to baby.
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| 36+2, October 30th, 2013 |
