(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Brothers

This first pic is my favorite. I call it "When Aunt Mary leaves the room."

So the boys are brothers, in the totally white-man, we are related, in fact we are twins, our parents are the same sense.

But lately, they're turning into brothers in the "real" sense. They love each other, they look out for each other, they want to spend their time together.

It's adorable. 

Their newest thing, is to touch each other when their brother is sad. Example: Grey starts to cry, and with a worried look - Micah reaches out and starts gently patting his head or stroking his hair.

Ohmygoodenesscute. They also have started holding hands in the stroller, which is adorable because they can't even see each other in the stroller, but have to reach around a partition thingy to grab one another. 

Anyway, the other day when I was taking pictures, I got seriously carried away, so I figured I'd share them over two posts. 

Today is filled with adorable brother pictures.  

  

  

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And don't forget to enter the giveaway for the Cranberry Red Balloon Cd!

Twins are the best thing ever.

Seriously. I am not kidding.
Every once and a while (aka: several times a day) I look over at my children and think, "Some poor saps only get one baby at a time? What do they do? They must be so depressed, and lonely and their kids don't have a best friend, and what if your husband is holding your baby during church? You just have to sit there and listen? When you could be HOLDING A BABY INSTEAD? How sad!"

I know that some people read that and think "Becky is insane," but I also think that thinking twins rock the freaking world is a pretty normal response (or else being terrified out of your mind of twins) or people wouldn't run (actually RUN) up to me in grocery stores and yell "OH MY GOSH, I've always wanted twins!" and people wouldn't stop me and say "Twins? How old? I have twins, too. Aren't they FUN?" 
Because that's the thing: twins are fun.
And twins are amazing.

And people who have twins are amazing.
Not to toot my own horn, but my body made two babies. At once. 
Sometimes, like today, it just hits me all over again and I want to freak out.
One of my good friends, Cecelia, was 35 weeks pregnant with twins yesterday, and I got this terrifying text from her:
"I'm freaking out. Please say prayers for me. I'm at a 6. Just got to the doctor because I thought it was more cramps. No time to make it to a hospital with a NICU. I am hysterical and needing some good thoughts."
And I am usually not very good. When I receive texts or calls or emails like that, I usually stay where I am, and maybe bow my head a bit and offer a quick prayer like that. I feel guilty about that.
But yesterday I panicked, remembering my own terrifying birth and the need my babies had of the NICU and I instantly dropped to my knees and sobbed out a prayer begging for peace, and health and for everything and everyone to be fine.
And I called and texted a few more people, and kept praying, and I felt a bit of peace, but I was still scared.  Because I've learned that the peace that comes from God saying "It will all work out," doesn't always mean "It will all work out how you want."
Less than an hour and a half after the first text, Celia texted me again "The babies came super fast. I'm not sure of the exact weights but they are doing great. I had no drugs and am in a daze, but happy. Thank you for the love!"
Followed by this picture, and the caption: Ezra and Elliot. Just hanging out. Being Buds.

And I lost it again.

Amazing. Celia, babies, God. Amazing.
And my babies are amazing. I can't stop wondering and marveling at them.
Grey learned to whistle this week. WHISTLE! Amazing.

I really cannot think of another word to describe them.
Oh, and I visited another set of twin boys in the NICU this week, and (by the way) they were amazing, too. They were so strong. So tiny.
But they weren't that tiny. I just remembered when my boys were so small, and how hard it is to have babies in the hospital.  Their mom is another super mom.
I've gotten to just babbling, haven't I?
Well I'm not quite finished.

Someone (a mother of twins) said to my mom, "I'm sure your daughter is an amazing mom, because moms of twins are amazing."
And I look at the many women around me who have twins and think "No kidding."
On a nearly daily basis people say to me, "How do you do it?" and I feel cheesy saying things like this, but I believe that you rise to the challenges that you face. You don't know how strong you are until you need to be strong. And you might have your hands full with one baby, but you too could handle twins.
God would just put you into the refining fire, and bring out another super mom.
(Not to imply that moms of one baby, or many babies who aren't born at the same time aren't super moms. Many of them are... I'm just on my own twin train of thought today.)
Anyway. You can read Celia's birth story on her blog {Babies Are Simple} here.

And I'd actually love if you left your thoughts on the topic in the comments, and maybe even a link to your birth story (or that of another super mom that you know of.)
Because seriously, ladies? We freaking rock. Moms are the bomb.
And also, so are twins.

Cardigans

Travis and I are cardigan wearers.
We are Gap sweater people.  And on-sale J. Crew sweater people.

And it seems only right for us to have sweater-wearing children, right?

The argyle sweater that Grey is wearing in these pictures is the first thing that I bought after I found out I was pregnant with twin boys.  We went to the store and I just wanted to find something. And I couldn't.
Everything in every baby store was over priced and said things like "Lil' Slugger" and I thought "I will not buy this crap for my unborn sons."
And we found this sweater. Size 12-18month, and it was on sale and I started chanting "Buy this, buy this!"

And Travis refused.
Yes he did.

And then later we came home and I lay in bed and cried about how much I wanted to buy my unborn son that rocking sweater (remember, when you're pregnant, all crying is acceptable), so we went back to the mall and bought it.
And then we called my parents on Skype to show them how cute it was.

And now it fits my first-born.
And it is SO FREAKING CUTE.
And it is what I wanted him to wear when we walked to the mall (Travis made us walk) and Santa was on a lunch break, so I made Mary come pick us up so we didn't have to walk home.

Soon we'll go see Santa for real, and the boys will wear cardigans.
Stay tuned for Holiday cuteness.

Oh, and by the way, did I mention that GREY TOOK HIS FIRST STEP on Saturday? No? Well he did.
He takes a step here or there now, before falling.
It's pretty much amazing.

Click to vote below, and check out yesterday's post to enter the GIVEAWAY (Hollah!)

Cranberry Red Balloon {GIVEAWAY}

Didn't I promise you a giveaway on Thanksgiving? So I became distracted by the pie and nap-takings and then by trying to go visit Santa? (by the way, Santa was "visiting his elves" {aka: eating lunch} when we got to the mall, so we have to go again later. Boo.)
But NOW  I have a giveaway for you.
It's for this:

The children's music cd Cranberry Red Balloon.

I know what you're thinking, if it's the same thing I was thinking when I got it, which is: Children's music is dumb and annoying and I would rather raise my child up listening to Beyonce music.
But Annie sent me this CD to listen to, and it is kinda awesome.
In fact, I actually enjoyed listening to it. It's quiet and calm, and nice to have on in the room while the kids play, and it also has really fun themes (and is mad catchy. I can't stop humming it.)
The title-song, "Cranberry Red Ballon" kind of reminded me of that old french film The Red Balloon, about a little kid and a balloon going around town together.
It is sweet.

This cd is not unlike the Weepies for children. Kind of acoustic sounding, with a gentle sounding lead voice.
I like to have it playing in my house. We've been listening to it a lot lately.

So this giveaway will run for one week and close on Sunday Dec 4 and then I will announce the TWO winners on Monday Dec 5.
Yes, that's right.  Two winners.

So to enter, please do the following:
* Make sure that you're a follower of Baby Making
* "Like" Tab Laven's facebook page (the musician behind Cranberry Red Balloon)
* Leave a comment telling me that you did so (and be sure to include your email address so I can email you if you win)

For extra entries, link up to this post using your social media of choice (twitter, facebook, blog, etc) and leave another comment linking to it.

And if you don't have children, enter to win and give this lovely cd as a Christmas gift to someone you know!

Thanksgiving. It was fun. Here is some funtimes.

Mary: so Tessa's roommate... Uh....
Becky: her name is unmemorable. What about her?
Travis: Jessica?
Becky: that seems probable.
Mary: are you kidding?! CHESICKA seems like a probable name?
Becky: oh yes. Her name was definitely Chesicka.
Travis: I said Jessica.
Mary: I guess that does make more sense.
Becky: Although she WAS slightly ethnic, so... It could be.
Travis: So. About that.
Mary: What were we saying?

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Oranges

These pictures are kind of dark and spooky, but they were probably taken while it was raining outside or something... (they're a bit old) but I thought that you guys would appreciate seeing the rapture that is eating oranges.
Graham crackers they love. Applesauce is pretty much the staple of their diet. But oranges, oh! Oranges! They eat them like a ravenous wolf eats... um...something adorable and soft.
So the dark and spooky vibe totally fits, because that last thing I said was definitely creepy.
Okay. Pictures. (Much cuter than pictures of wolves eating.)
(Unless they're baby wolves, am I right? Awww, baby animals.)

And now that I'm thinking about it, here's a story for your enjoyment: Once upon a time I was very, VERY pregnant and I saw a picture of a baby platypus.
The resulting sobbing/laughing hysterically caused my poor husband to rush into our room in a panic, since he was pretty sure that I was in labor.
That picture caused some pretty serious contractions (seriously, I was FREAKING OUT over that picture) and um... two days later I had the babies.
It just might have been the baby platypus.
Seriously. Have you seen how cute they are? GOOGLE IT NOW.

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! And while you're in a drowsy post-turkey state, but before you enter your food coma, make sure you check tomorrows blog. There just may be a giveaway starting tomorrow.

Break

I have friends in town today from both Minnesota, my home town and Brooklyn.
So I'm playing with them today instead of you.
See you tomorrow!
xoxo

Bathtime

You can put bare butts on the internet, right? When they're so cute?

Here's the story of bath time through the babies' lives:
First, they totally loved it. It was warm, and they stayed wrapped up, and in the NICU they even had a blazing hot heater above them during the bath. Niiiiice.
Then, they liked it. It wasn't awesome to get washed, but they liked the new experience.
When they started to be able to sit up, they liked the bath but wouldn't endure being "bathed." They screamed, they gasped, they choked. They hated it. (And they weren't getting dunked or anything.
Then suddenly, when we were in Montana last month, they decided that they HATED the bath.
They would scream and flail. They would pull themselves up on the edge of the tub and try to throw themselves out. The first time Micah stood unsupported was when he was trying to get out of the tub.

And then, magically, they loved it again.
BAM! Bathtime is now the favorite part of the day again.
Those soft foam letters are the best toys in the house. The water is warm and fun to splash. The slippery bottom of the tub is fun to slide around on. Getting soaped up is silly, and makes them laugh. Chewing on wet washcloths feels good on their still-toothless gums.
It's wonderful.
And I took some pictures for your enjoyment, since we've been a bit picture-free lately.