It's official

I think we can officially say that the boys are walkers. We rarely see them crawling anymore. They have gotten to the point where it is just as fast to walk than crawl. It won't be long and they will be running.

Busy at the Dillner's

I have to apologize for the lack of posts lately. The Dillner household has been busy lately. The past 3 weekends in a row we have had company. It was wonderful to see all the family that came for a visit. We are looking forward to a quiet weekend.

The boys have made a great adjustment to daycare. They love going to play with their new friends. They are getting to be better walkers everyday and are learning more and more new words. David is trying to get them to say JayHawk, while I am trying to get them to say Huskers. We will see which they can say first. David has also tried to get them to say negative things about K-State.

I am enjoying my new job. I love being able to talk to other adults during the day. Everyone at the school really likes me too. I has been a good decision for me to go back to work. David is keeping busy at City Hall. He is gearing up for the March Madness and the beginning of racing season.

In the pictures above, Thomas appears to be in jail, while Michael is taking it easy in his new ride. You can check out this link for more pictures of the boys. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16788&l=5ceda&id=598762182

More pictures

Check out this link for more pictures of the boys. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16788&l=5ceda&id=598762182

Double Trouble

Some pictures of both the boys. They are helping daddy put something together. They are with their friends Ashton and Isaiah, who are also twins, after a playdate.

Michael

Some pictures of Michael. He is realizing that he can stand by himself. Michael is helping mommy clean out her towel drawer.

Thomas

Here are some pictures of Thomas. Thomas is helping mom with the laundary, sitting on Great-Grandpa Andy's lap, trying to stand up on his own and upset about something.

Back to work

Life has changed at the Dillner household. Last Thursday I went back to work full time. I am really enjoying my job. I'm at a great school with wonderful kids. I am working with 5th and 6th graders. I definitely enjoy working with them more than I did the 8th graders I worked with in VA. The boys are adjusting well. They like going to daycare. They have a great time playing with their new friends all day long. I think they are starting to really miss mom, but it will take time for them to get adjusted. Just since Thursday Thomas has really started saying a lot more words. I think he hears his friends talking and he is trying to do the same. One of his newest words is 'no'. Michael is talking less, but it won't be long and he will have the 'no' word down. The boys are also taking a few steps between mom and dad. I am hoping that seeing other kids at daycare walking, will speed up the walking process. Well I have a few things I need to finish up before tomorrow, so this is all for now. I will try to put current pictures up soon!

Happy New Year!

We hope all of you had a Merry Christmas. Our Christmas seemed a little crazy and is not yet finished. Last weekend we took a shortened trip, due to sickness and weather, to Beloit for Christmas with the Dillners. We had a quiet Christmas at home with the boys and are heading to Omaha for Christmas with the Krehers this weekend. Besides all the traveling the boys are working on getting over a bout with croup. They are both feeling much better. They are also enjoying playing with all their new toys. Well I suppose I should go and finish packing. I just wanted to post a couple of pictures from Christmas morning. Michael is wearing the yellow and Thomas the blue. We hope you all have a safe and happy New Year!

Changes

There will be some big changes in the Dillner household in the near future. I will be returning to work full time after the new year. Sorry to disappoint all of those who thought I was going to say I was pregnant. I know lots of you were thinking that, but not at this time. Starting January 3rd I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade Special Education at Wheatridge Middle School is Gardner. The local school district does not offer contracts in the middle of the year, so I will be working as a long term sub. I have an understanding with the Special Education Administration that if they like me and I like them, then I will be offered a contract for next school year. I am excited to begin working again. I am saddened at not being able to spend the days with my boys, but I am thankful for the time I was able to spend at home with them. I will be working to find daycare for the boys between now and Jan. 3rd. We have met with one person and I have a couple more interviews lined up.

The boys got tubes in their ears on Thursday. By Friday they were back to normal. We got the boys' picture taken with Santa on Friday night. This picture was taken a few seconds before Thomas started crying.

Catching up

The last couple of weeks have been busy around here. I thought it would be a good time to sit down and catch you up on all the things going on around here. Early in November we took the boys to see and Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. At that appointment it was decided that the boys needed tubes in their ears. So on Thursday, assuming the boys don't get sick between now and then, the boys will have tubes put in their ears. It is a simple surgery that takes 5-10 minutes per ear. We are hoping that this might help with their weight gain. Also regarding the issue of weight gain, we went to see a GI doctor last week. We finally saw a doctor that had some common sense. He pretty much ruled out any GI problems for the boys. He took a look at them and said, they aren't skinny. Their weight is proportional to their heights and he was not concerned. Although he did want to make sure the boys were in taking enough calories. So I have been spending the last three days tracking how much they have eaten so a calorie count can be done.

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with David's family. The twins and Dominic had a good time playing together. Since we were getting a family picture taken after Thanksgiving, we decided it was time for the boy's first hair cut. I have posted pictures of the event along with this post, Michael is the one looking to the side. It was more of a trim than an actual haircut. The boys did good, they sat on David's lap and looked around, Heidi our hair dresser cut their hair while they were looking around.

That pretty much brings you up to speed on life at the Dillner household. We are getting ready for Christmas. We are slowly pulling the decorations out of the basement. The tree is not up yet, and I'm not looking forward to putting it up. I wonder how many times it will get pulled down???

Making new friends

The boys have been busy making new friends. There was a cat sitting at our back door. The boys spend quite awhile trying to play with the cat, through the glass. The cat stayed around for a while, probably because it thought we were going to open the door. It was probably a good thing that there was glass between the cad and the boys, I don't know what they would have done to the cat if they could have gotten to it. David found a fuzzy caterpillar on our front step and brought it in for the boys to see. The boys were very interested in it. They wanted to feel it. We were afraid the feel would turn into a crushing of the caterpillar. So after a couple of minutes the caterpillar was taken back outside before the boys could terrorize it.

Pictures of Michael!

Pictures of Thomas!

My little pumpkins

The boys were pumpkins for Halloween this year. They are ready to go in their costumes. I had to work until 7:00, so David took the boys to the Halloween Party that the City of Edgerton hosts and then they came home to answer the door for trick or treators. While I was at work, the boys did get to share a piece of candy. They enjoyed it so much that Michael was using his sign ( I have been working on teaching them a few basic sign language signs and more is the only one he knows) for more. He wanted more, but daddy would not give him anymore. When I got home from work, we took the boys to a couple of our neighbors houses to trick or treat. Michael thought he figured out a way to get more candy. He put one of his pieces of candy in his mouth, wrapper and all. It just hung out of his mouth while we went to a couple more houses. I wish we had our camera with us. All in all, the boys enjoyed their Halloween and David and I will enjoy the little bit of candy we got from trick or treating!

Good People

It is nice to know that there are still good people out in the world. Last Friday, the boys and I took a trip to the grocery store and between paying for the groceries, holding one of the boys and trying to get out of the store, I must have forgotten or dropped my debit card. I did not realize this until Monday when the boys and I were at Walmart picking up a few things. I went to pull out my debit card to pay and it was missing. Needless to say I was upset, worried and mad at myself for losing it. I tried to remember when the last time I used it and decided that it had to have been at the grocery store on Friday. I had decided that I was going to call and see if by a long shot my card had been turned in and if not, then call the bank to cancel the card. In the mean time I was scared to check our checking account balance online, figuring someone had picked the card up and started using it. Luckily the call to the grocery store was a success. Someone had turned it in to Customer Service. When I told David all of this he, said, "I guess there are still good people out there". He is right and I am thankful for that.

In the picture the boys are 'helping' fold the clean laundry. Last week the boys and I spent sometime at my parents house, while David was in Pittsburgh, PA for a conference. We all had a good time. It was nice to spend some time at my mom and dads. It was also nice not to have to handle the boys by myself.

The boys are getting better at walking along things and walking while holding our hands. Their favorite things to play with right now, are cars, balls, their play telephone and anything they can walk along. The also enjoy getting their mail everyday, which is the junk mail.

15 months old!

Here is a picture of the boys swinging with their cousin Dominic. The boys had a good time playing together when John, Jilinda and Dominic visited over the weekend.

Yesterday brought the boys 15 month check up. We were relieved when the boys gained about a pound, and grew almost an inch. The boys are weighing in right at 18 pounds, their weights are within one ounce of each other. They are both about 29 inches tall. Again the difference in height is very small, only 1/8 of an inch. Other than being small and still not on the growth curve they were on, the boys were given a clean bill of health. We will keep giving them the pediasure and lots of good food to eat, and hopefully they will continue to gain weight.

Yesterday David and I bottled a batch of home brew beer. This beer is a holiday ale and will be ready to drink around Christmas. David is heading off to Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday. The boys and I will be heading off to Omaha on Sunday to spend time with my folks. I also think their will be a visit from David's folks this weekend. We are busy, busy busy!

Spelunking Fun!

Here a few pictures of the boys doing one of their new favorite activities, spelunking! Besides spelunking on the cart and the bookshelf, the boys enjoyed spelunking in the fireplace. That is until we covered it up with the toy box.

Success!!!

I am happy to report that it is now safe to say that the boys have been successfully weaned from breastfeeding. We had been down to nursing right before bed. We quit that feeding a week ago. The boys have done a great job going to sleep without being nursed. I am thankful to have a little bit more freedom and not have to be around to put them to sleep.

In other good news, all of the test results, that we had done on the boys because they aren't gaining weight, are back. Everything came back normal. We go back to the doctor in a couple of weeks for their 15 month check up. Hopefully they will have put on some weight and we can put this issue to rest.

Future Architects

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys playing with one of their favorite toys, the blocks. They love building with their blocks. Michael is in the blue and Thomas in the white. They also love to play with balls, they are getting good at throwing as well. They aren't limiting throwing to just balls, they like to throw whatever they have in their hands. We also love to sit and read books.


Otherwise all is well at the Dillner household. They boys are finding new things to get into everyday. They love to stand, anywhere they can pull themselves up to. They are getting very brave and are beginning to let go of what they standing against. David brewed a batch of Holiday Beer this weekend, so that should be ready to drink around the holidays this winter. Otherwise not too much is going on around here.

The answer is.

If you said that Thomas is in the green and Michael is in the blue, you guessed correctly!! Congratulations!