Wednesday's Fun Fact

In the spirit of full disclosure, we just wanted an excuse to use that lead photo... And since the girls are wearing shirts with pink Christmas trees on them, let's just say there was a short shelf life on how much longer we had.

Regardless, we do have a fun update. Braelyn's baby-babble has apparently become bilingual. Lately she's been saying "capisce" an awful lot. We guess she's using her inner Italian to let us know she's understanding things perfectly thus far.

;)

Talk to you all soon!!!

Another Castellano Christmas

Well, our 2010 Castellano Christmas came off without a hitch. All-in-all Braelyn and Gwendolyn did pretty well "experiencing" the season. There was one minor fussy period by Braelyn at church but that came at the very end of the service after she’d been there for about two hours. Thankfully, we kept her occupied with a string of books and puffs. As you can see above, the girls looked fabulous at church in their Christmas dresses!

On Christmas morning, they opened their stockings before we had a traditional Castellano holiday breakfast of waffles and eggs. After the twins finished off a nap, Grandma McKee came over and the girls officially opened their gifts.

Here are some of our favorite shots from the holiday that was:

Enjoy this photo because it is one of the only ones of Braelyn at church in a state of stillness!

Gwendolyn seems excited with her stocking haul of clothes.

On the other hand, Braelyn seems just tickled to add some new books to her ever-growing library.

In no time at all, poor Grandma McKee was pressed into duty reading the same book to Braelyn over and over again.

It was tough to tell if we had more fun opening gifts or if the girls did.

But in the end, Gwen seemed entranced with the Dora doll her daddy bought for her.

That’s all for now… New Year’s is almost here (not to mention a Chiefs playoff game!!!). Talk to you all soon!!!

The Santa Sequel

So, our earlier adventure to see Santa with the girls didn’t go so well. Braelyn shrilled in fear while Gwendolyn merely stared at the Jolly Old Guy trying to figure the whole thing out.

Mom and Dad decided to give it another whirl today. As you can see from this sequence of photos, things started out very similar yet again but at least by the time their spot on his lap was due to expire, the girls were docile about the whole thing!

Still, the best part might just have been returning home and seeing this sight after we pulled into the garage.

We guess hanging with Saint Nick can tucker a girl out!!! ;)

Merry Christmas one and all!!!

Howdy Slick

Here's a news flash, Braelyn has found the perfect cure for cradle cap:

Equal parts baby oil and laughter.

The scary part is that it worked!!!

Luckily for her, Gwendolyn has her back no matter what! (And believe it or not, that's NOT a staged shot!)

Talk to you all tomorrow after our second visit to see Santa this season... Hopefully there will be less tears this time around!

Our Busy Little Elves

Well, the Castellanos have been busy this past week getting ready for the holidays. The tree is trimmed (as we’ve discussed ad nauseam by now), most of the gifts have been purchased (although not wrapped) and the girls are getting in the proper spirit. As you can see above, Santa’s got a pair of elves donning pink rhinestone hats that just can’t wait for the jolly old guy to show.

Every day, Braelyn and Gwendolyn seem to grow bigger and bigger. Gwen in particular continues to do smashingly. With a little help from some prune juice, she seems to have kicked her pooper issues and is flashing her shy smile more and more.

Braelyn is redefining the terms "hyper" and "hard-headed" (in more ways than one given how often she's been falling as she perfects the whole walking thing) but she’s also such a joy. Few have the unbridled passion of that child!

All totaled, it continues to amaze Mom and Dad about how well they are doing given what the last year held for us.

Speaking of doing well, the girls joined Dad in watching the Chiefs game today. In fact, they threw on their new Chiefs shirts for the occasion. After that victory over the Rams this afternoon, we have a feeling that they will be in those shirts for the next few Sundays also!

Good news/bad news is that Mom’s already done with school for the rest of 2010 and Dad’s only got one day of work left this year. So, the theory goes that we’ll have more time to sit down and blog updates for you all… Of course, we’ll have more time for a lot of other things as well so we might just be busier than in a typical week if you know what we mean.

;)

Still, we’re sure we’ll be on again soon with another look at the fun that is Braelyn and Gwendolyn… Especially this holiday season.

Binkies From Heaven

We have an update on our holiday decor (like you care). Mom raced out after Braelyn began treating our ornaments like Ping-Pong balls and got the above "shatter proof" ornaments. Honestly, we hadn't ever heard of "shatter proof" ornaments but sure enough, they are plastic versions of the traditional glass ones.

Luckily, it didn't take us long to figure that one out.

The other news of note we wanted to pass on (even though it too is likely of interest only to us) is in regards to Gwendolyn. You see, she is getting less and less reliant on her binky as she matures. However, it is still a necessary crutch of hers when it comes to sleep. We honestly thought that there was a Binky Monster in our nursery of late. Our typical routine would find Gwen rolling over once or twice a night and crying intensely because there was no pacifier to be had. So, Mom or Dad would frantically search in the dark for the binky and then finally give up and rush for a backup in the kitchen before Gwen’s cries awoke Braelyn.

The weird part is that the next morning, we never could find the original binky. We would assume that it just rolled out of the crib and onto the floor but alas, that next morning it was nowhere to be found.

So, the other day Mom was getting frustrated by this sequence of events. After another binky seemed destined to join the P.O.W. list, she shook Gwen’s crib as a last-ditch effort get some binky closure.

Yep, as you can see from the photo above, Mom hit the mother lode. It seems as though the binkies were getting lodged between the crib and the wall. They were so far down that we couldn’t see them, even when changing her sheets, but they never did quite make their way down to the floor.

Mystery solved… Our Binky Monster has been exterminated!

Not Quite A Christmas Miracle… But we’ll Take It!!!

Okay, we decided to start off this entry with the above photo for several reasons. Besides the fact that it documents the twins' first time on Santa’s lap together - and that their collective reactions (horror by Braelyn and speechlessness by Gwendolyn) is quite priceless - there’s one other reason we led with it… Simply put, we have a feeling the remainder of this entry will leave everyone with a large smile as opposed to a Braelynesque frown.

Why’s that, you ask. On Friday, we got a call from Gwendolyn’s Pulmonologist. Honestly, when we picked up the phone, our heart sank a little. You see, Gwen’s been doing so well and then we had last weekend’s hospital stay. Obviously, that turned out not to be very serious but we guess that when you are coming off a first year like Gwendolyn had, you are a little gun shy. Sometimes it feels as though just when you allow yourself to feel good about things, someone from the medical community calls to rain on your parade.

(Please skip these next two paragraphs if you already feel caught up on Gwendolyn’s breathing saga) As many of you remember, dating as far back to her stay in October 2009, the CMH Pulmonologists have been reviewing Gwen’s case. Early on it was hinted that she need a tracheotomy and then, after her jaw extension procedure seemed to clear her breathing issues, there was a new set of concerns. A pair of sleep studies brought up conflicting types of apnea (between central, or based in the brain, and obstructive, or due to a physical issue). Exasperated, Mom and Dad expressed concern over the Sleep Study’s validity because Gwendolyn is such a creature of habit that when her norm is altered, such as sleeping in a strange crib and hooked up to so many monitors that they required her to be wrapped up like a mummy with medical tape, she tends to throw fits.

And so, after some digging, the Pulmonologist agreed to try something unique for Gwendolyn. Instead of a one-night Sleep Study where Gwendolyn’s in a strange environment and not able to be comfortable, we were told to hook her up to an at-home apnea monitor for a month-long study. The call from the Pulmonologist on Friday was to discuss the results of that at-home study.

Now, back to the present time. Gwen’s Pulmonologist called to say that she averaged less than an apnea an hour during the course of her at-home study. Since the danger zone is five an hour, she significantly undershot that total. Ergo, for the first time since the early spring, Gwendolyn is now sleeping untethered to any monitoring devices. She’ll have a follow up visit in about six months, then possibly another Sleep Study or two as she matures and gets less upset over a chance in scenery. Still, this was an extremely happy update.

In theory, Gwen’s not going to have much to medically update here again until March (or so we hope). That’s when she’s got a full docket of follow-up tests such as a check of the slightly enlarged ventricle in her brain and another Swallow Study to see how she’s advanced with ingesting liquids.

Still, for once it’s nice to focus on something other than hospitals and doctors. In fact, the girls are going to join Daddy in cheering on the Chiefs this weekend for their big showdown with the Chargers and staying bundled up as the mercury continues to fall.

Looks to us like the girls really are in the pigskin spirit, don’t you think?

The Castellanos did spend the vast majority of Saturday frantically purchasing holiday gifts and dodging the blustery winds. (It’s amazing how much a weekend December hospital stay throws off your Holiday prep plans!) We started to put up our holiday decorations… That is until Braelyn found a box with several glass ornaments. (We know… sometimes you don’t REALLY think through something until after the fact and then you are like “WHAT were we thinking!?!?!? Let's just say lesson learned.)

After cleaning up the carnage, Mom and Dad halted that endeavor and decided that it was time to baby-proof the tree. Wooden ornaments here we come!!!

Okay, that’s all we’ve got for now… We need to run to the holiday store. We'll be sure to check back in again soon!!!

The Castellanos Must All Be Full of It

What a weekend we had. As noted in our last blog entry, Gwendolyn had been “retching” her food of late. When Mom went to the pediatrician’s to have her looked at, they told us to give her electrolytes for the rest of the day and then try feeding her again on Saturday. Their initial thought is that it was the stomach flu but it would clear up shortly if that indeed was the case. If for some reason she was still having eating difficulties the next morning, we should go to Children’s Mercy Hospital and have her shunt looked at, just for precautionary sake.

Unfortunately, Gwen was in fact still exhibited eating issues on Saturday so off to the E.R. we went. They decided early on that her eating problems weren’t related to the shunt because she didn’t exhibit any other telltale signs of a malfunction. Their initial thought was that Gwen had a piece of food she didn’t chew properly that was lodged near her stomach’s opening, therefore causing the backup.

We went for x-rays and the good news is that she had no food lodged. Unfortunately, what she did have was a significant pooper backup. (Yes, Gwen was officially diagnosed as being full of sh*t!) We tried a “Children’s Mercy Hospital Enema” (Which consisted of milk and molasses… Let’s just say that gingerbread is NOT going to be on our holiday menu this year!). That didn’t work. So, we went with a more medial enema consisting of a saline solution and soap… Still nothing.

That was kind of the last straw for the hospital. They admitted Gwendolyn and set her up with a continuous drip of a laxative and electrolyte mixture through her feeding tube. Unfortunately, Dad pulled evening duty with Gwen. We say unfortunately because without getting graphic, he got to handle the aftermath when Gwen’s dam officially broke… and broke again… and broke one last time.

Once she was cleared out (there was so much poop on the initial x-ray that at one stage the doctor didn’t even think poor Gwen was able to fully inhale because of a lack of space for her lungs) we tried feeding her again. Unfortunately, the first go around didn’t go so well. Luckily, it seems as though her intestinal track was just so enlarged that it was still putting pressure on her stomach even when it was cleared. After a few hours, it began to reduce to its normal size and Gwen was able to eat without retching.

As a side note, just as we were getting the okay for discharge from CMH, we got a call from the pediatrician. It turns out that a urine culture taken on Friday had come back positive for E. coli (at least partially due to the backup of poop) so she had a urinary track infection to boot.

So, long story short, Gwen’s back at home and seems to be her normal self. She’s on an antibiotic and eating light foods for the time being as we get her back up to ingesting normal foods again.

As for her sister, Braelyn’s routine was thrown totally out of whack by Gwen’s unannounced hospital stay. When we got back home from the hospital, Braelyn spent the entire evening giving Gwen hugs and kisses that continued into this morning… So cute by the way.

For our part, Mom and Dad never suspected a poop problem because Gwen was still having normal movements multiple times a day. Needless to say, the Gwenner suddenly has a svelter figure now that she’s gotten rid of the excess baggage, which is a very nice side effect of things.

Still, we think the REAL lesson here is that all the Castellanos, old and young, are really full of it in the end.

Sorry, we couldn’t resist!!!

This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef...

Things with the Castellano girls are going okay.

Poor Gwendolyn wasn't able to hold food down for part of her dinner last night or all of her breakfast this morning. Mom's taking her to the pediatrician to try and get to the bottom of it this afternoon.

Outside of that, Braelyn's steps have gotten less and less wobbly. Pretty soon, she'll no doubt be running through our living room in a full sprint.

The other thing moving quickly has been the twin's follicles. The girls' hair has really been growing at a rapid clip of late. In fact, Mom snapped these photos of them the other day after she tried out a new hair style.

There are few things more precious to Dad then seeing his girls in pigtails... Don't you agree?

Grandparent Good-Byes

Well, in the span of five short days, Hurricane Castellano has come and gone.

Braelyn and Gwendolyn will miss their Nana and Poppa until they see them again.

Unfortunately, the girls had to say their final good-byes to them earlier today.

But the good piece of news is that even with two grandparents gone, there's still Grandma McKee there to spoil the girls!

Excuses, Excuses

Wow... Has it REALLY been a week since our last post?

Um, we have no idea how that happened! Our apologizes... BAD BLOGGERS!!!

Somewhere in the midst of preparing for Thanksgiving, we forgot about blogging. At least our last photo was of the girls in their Thanksgiving headdresses... So we hope it helped keep you all in the proper holiday mindset during our absence.

Speaking of Turkey Day, we had a fabulous holiday indeed!!! Grandma McKee invited everyone over to her house. Uncle Kyle fried up our Thomas for us all as Braelyn and Gwendolyn celebrated not only with their McKee relatives but also their Castellano Grandparents, Uncle Rich, Auntie Shannon, and cousin Ava (collectively known as "Hurricane Castellano" around these parts). Yep, it was a lot of people gathered around the table but everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Better yet, since Dad had to work the Plaza Lighting Ceremony that night, he hauled Mom as well as the Aunts and Uncles with him. So, the girls got some extra TLC with Nana and Poppa and Grandma McKee watched her other set of granddaughters. It all resulted in the rest of the adults enjoying the this iconic Kansas City tradition. As you'll see in a little bit, we think the "grownups" had a good time even if we can't properly describe it!

And ever since "Hurricane Castellano" touched down, its been a whirlwind of activity surrounding Thanksgiving Day. So again, we apologize for the neglect. However, in the spirit of the season, we come bearing gifts. Unfortunately, our version of thanks doesn't involved the same feast indulged by the Wampanoag Indians and Pilgrims. (You do know there was a bunch of lobster consumed that first Thanksgiving, right? Yeah, well none of that fancy stuff can be found anywhere near this blog entry, much to mom's chagrin.) Still, we hope you enjoy it all the same.

Below is a sampling of photos documenting the twins' Thanksgiving Week activities... Our first together without a trip to Children's Mercy Hospital on the docket (Yes, this year's Thanksgiving dinner blew away the one Mom and Dad ate in the hospital cafeteria last year on many levels). Enjoy because we certainly did!!!

Grandma McKee shares a Thanksgiving smile with Gwendolyn and Braelyn

What do you get when you mix the girls' mother and aunts with a balloon artist at the Plaza Lighting Ceremony? We can't even begin to describe it...

Poppa and Ava are ready for the Turkey to be served

Nana seems to be corralled in "The Community" by a trio of Castellano granddaughters

Uncle Rich hangs with the twins

Dad and his Mini-Me (a.k.a. Braelyn McKee)

Mom helps Gwendolyn open an early Christmas gift even if she isn't in the spirit of the season

Time to pose for Nana & Poppa's holiday card picture... Everyone say cheese!

Since we won't see them again before Christmas, we had a "Castellano Christmas" and Poppa loved the new shirt from his favorite Kansas City eatery.

Nana gets some help from The Gwenner opening her early Christmas gift

One Little, Two Little…

First, thanks SOOOOO much to our Indian Chief, Mrs. Tracy for helping the girls make their cool headgear. We can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving time!!! (And the girls are already sad that they won’t be able to have their typical five-day stay at Mrs. Tracy’s next week.)

On a side note, Dad wanted to take a quick moment to recognize his lovely wife. Late last month, in honor of National Spina Bifida Awareness Month, Mom took on quite a project. She spoke with all the principals in her district and got them to agree that if their teachers gave a pledge to Spina Bifida Kansas City, they could wear jeans to work for one day. In addition, Mom tracked down some enticing prizes to raffle off for those making contributions.

I am pleased and overwhelmed to announce that today we are dropping off in the mail to SBKC nearly $1,000 in donations. The most touching part to us is that we’ve been told these funds will support those families that have a child with spina bifida but might not have the outstanding resources available to them that we’ve been blessed with. As a result, these families receive grants through SBKC so they can purchase supplemental equipment for their little ones.

Anyway, we are so overwhelming proud of Heather for not only taking on this project but doing so with such zeal. And to those of you in the school district or outside that pledged monies to the cause, you have no idea how far reaching your generosity will go!

Happy Friday everyone!!!

Big Girls Making Us Get All Misty

Wow, what a week of milestones thus far.

At Gwendolyn’s latest physical therapy session this past Monday, the following transpired:

No, not the discovery of a horribly dust-filled couch! (As the Wizard of Oz says, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!") Instead, Gwendolyn braced herself against that living room monstrosity and stood on her own for the first time.

WOW... That girl continues to crash through threshold after threshold.

Speaking of evolving stages, there’s one transpiring for the girls in the family van also.

As our model Braelyn shows you (in her typical incoherent morning stare), gone are the infant car seats. Somehow, the girls are now weighing so much that they have big-girl seats to sit in. Actually, they look way more comfortable than the drab ones Mom and Dad have to use, but we digress!

When will this growing up come to an end… Before we know it, Dad will be escorting them down the aisle and giving them away!!!

Well, we’re going to sign off now before one of them starts riding a bike or something!!!

;)

Say Meow Window Shoppers

The best part about running Saturday errands with Mom & Dad? The window shopping of course... Check out how chic we look in these hats!

Opposites Attract

Just a quick observation for this mid-week blog entry… As you can see in the photo above, Braelyn has begun to act out the theory of “sharing” even though she’s still too young to fully grasp the ramifications of her actions. We’ve already discussed her over-zealous affection for her sister and how it often renders Gwendolyn in a flustered, knocked over state. Still, it does our hearts proud as parents when the girls act out the ideologies of sharing and compassion.

As for Gwendolyn, she honestly has the kindest spirit of anyone we’ve come to know this side of her late Papa McKee. During the times that Braelyn isn’t as open to sharing and is more focused on taking whatever toy is currently occupying her sister, Gwendolyn rarely puts up a fuss. Instead, she quickly moves on to the next toy only to have the cycle be repeated again by Braelyn. However, Gwen just rarely fusses at her sister... Or anyone else for that matter. In fact, she is often embarrassed to even share a smile with someone and typically only gets upset when she hears her sister or someone else in distress.

We’re only a year into things but as each of their personalities continue to mature, they seem to be turning more and more into polar opposites of one another. Braelyn's over-the-top and always on the go while Gwendolyn's more than happy to hang lose far away from the spotlight and occupy herself. That's why Mom and Dad are fairly positive, even at this early stage, that about the only common ground the twins will ever share is a birthday… And we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Enjoying Some Extra Rest

Unfortunately the cooler nights have brought along with them a cold to the girls. It started with Braelyn about a month ago and has since been transferred over to Gwendolyn. Luckily, we think its stay at the Castellano house is nearly complete. Share and share alike we guess.

We did leave a message for the Pulmonologist in case he feels as though the past 10 days of increased stuffiness will affect the results of Gwen’s current month-long, at-home sleep monitoring study. We haven’t heard back yet but we think this week is supposed to be the final scheduled one of the study so we should know soon if there’s any recourse based on her cold.

As for how Gwen’s been sleeping thus far… From a highly non-medical perspective, she seems to be having positive sleep patterns. Thus far, about 2-4 times a night she beeps off but when we go into reset her apnea monitor, she’s already breathing at a regular rate. So yes, she’s still having spells and anytime someone stops breathing for more than 12 seconds at a time, its concerning. That being said, whether it’s her on her own or as a result of the noise from the monitor's beep rousing her, she continues to self correct and begin breathing normal again. The period she’s had congestion from this cold aside, Gwendolyn also seems to have less frequent spells during the course of the night. We theorize that as she matures, she grows stronger and stronger.

When we first had her on a pulse-oxi meter (a less sensitive version of the current apnea monitor) at home following her spring bout in the hospital, she’d often beep off +5 times a night. However, as the time has passed, the frequency has diminished. For instance, one of the first nights Gwen was on her apnea monitor for this study, she slept through without an occurrence. Last night, as she’s finally begun to shake the cold, she just had one occurrence. During the course of her cold, Gwen honestly had closer to four spells a night than two. So who knows what it all means. In the end, that’s just the hopeful observations of her parents not that of a trained medical profession so we’ll just have to wait and see.

As for the topic of sleep, Braelyn has been a big fan of Daylight Savings Time (or as we call it Brae-light Savings Time). Unfortunately, photos like this one of her taking an afternoon cat nap are few and far between because she just hates to miss out on ANYTHING... So, an extra hour of sleep in the morning is a definite plus for her.

We have the representative that Gwen's stander was ordered from coming back today. For some reason it still doesn’t seem to be fitting her correctly. However, as you can tell from the lead photo in this post, Gwen still had some quality time in the stander this weekend and Braelyn was even on hand to help out... As you can also tell, that play time in the stander came shortly after breakfast so please excuse their bed-heads.

Now that’s what sisterly love is all about!!!