Another Snowed Out Friday

The girls got yet another snow day with Mom on Friday. Surely winter is almost done, right? Well, either way it looks like the girls enjoyed their latest day of hookie with Mom.

Braelyn has become quite a "naked bandit" of late. Whenever we try to change her, she sprints for the door and throws a fit before we are able to redress her again. Apparently, she has no problem hanging out with her pal Elmo during this time of undress. Watch it Elmo, Daddy's got his eyes on you!!!

;)

As for Gwendolyn, she's been practicing in a loaner Gait trainer. She'll be getting her very own soon but her P.T. let her test drive this model over the weekend. While it is going well thus far, we have to admit that she is still learning about steps. Unfortunately, at this point she gets a little frustrated when she swings herself forward and her legs hold her back... But we're pretty sure she'll "master" the process of picking up her leg and moving her foot the more time we spend with her in the Gait trainer.

We hope all's well with you... Enjoy the weekend!!!

Gwen is Happy Too!!

Our Gwenner does NOT like to be outdone by her sister. Given our recent post with Braelyn saying how "happy" she is, Gwen wanted to show off a little too. This is usually the way it goes with these two. Braelyn will start doing or saying something and about two weeks later Gwen decides she's going to join in too!!

We have to say that we feel like we must be doing something right if both of our girls chose to have one of their first words be "happy". They have sure made our lives happier!!

Click here to hear all about the happy times going on. :)

(Oh, and Mom had her give the camera the token sign for "please" at the end while we were at it too... Yeah, she's a show-off.)

Out of my way, Mom… I’m on the move!

Wow, the days just keep flying by of late!

Not a lot to update you all on but the little that we do have is BIG news (or at least we think it is). Ms. Gwendolyn is once again continuing to break milestones. We’ve talked before about her standing ability. Well, as you can see in the following photo, she’s even got so comfortable being upright that there’s no strain on her face and she only needs to lightly bracing herself with one hand (speaking of braces, she does have them on under her pants... we promise). But the big news came during her first physical therapy session this week. Gwen surprised both Mom and her P.T. by realizing that she can scoot backwards on our laminate floors. As the two adults were tending to some maintenance on Gwen’s stander (which by the way seems the most obvious tool that’s strengthened her legs to this level) Mom’s peripheral vision noticed that Gwen was on the move trying to reach a favorite toy of hers. Needless to say, it was an exciting revelation for everyone there. Hopefully, it’s the first in many ways she will learn to get around.

Braelyn is also still not about to be left out of any activities… Below is a photo of her tending to her sister’s appearance. Yep, that’s the same comb that Gwen has clutched in her free hand in the initial picture of this post. It’s still amazing to us parents how something as simple as a comb can become a treasured toy! Trust us, you don’t want to take the comb or spray bottle out of their hands in the morning when it comes time to fix their hair… You’d think you just stole their best friend or something by the cries that ensue!!!

Well, that’s about it for now. Today’s big activity for The Gwenner is in preparation for her head MRI next month. She’s off to get a physical so the anesthesiologist is sure to administer the proper dosage during that scan. Brae Bear will get some more Grandma McKee time while Gwen and Daddy are waiting for hours to be seen at the pediatrician’s office (if the past is any indication that is)!

;)

Talk to you all soon!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Castellanos

We hope you all have the ability to spend a little bit of time with the ones you love this Valentine's Day!

P.S. A special thanks goes out to Mom & Uncle Kyle for linking the video in yesterday's "Happy" post... Thankfully someone around here is able to figure out how to bring things on the blog into the 21st century! (Although hopefully the next time Mom will give Dad a heads up to not shriek "happy, happy, happy" like a little girl because she's got the video camera rolling... Our apologizes if his shrills caused dogs in your immediate vicinity to begin howling uncontrollably!)

;)

Happy!!

Thought we would share one of Braelyn's new favorite words...

We have a feeling it will make you feel HAPPY by clicking there.

Enjoy. :)

A Double Take

You know how early on in our journey Dad was trumpeting the likenesses between Gwendolyn and himself? Well, apparently he forgot about the old adage that most babies tend to look alike.

Now inching toward 17-months of age, it has become abundantly clear that Gwendolyn certainly takes more after her mother’s side of the family than dear old dad’s. Not convinced? Check out this comparison between Gwendolyn and her cousin, Madison, at about the same age:

Yep, there’s no denying that those two look separated at birth… They are unbelievably similar. In fact, Maddie's sister is also a near replication of The Gwenner.

Moving onto the here and now, after yet another snow day, the girls (and of course Mom) are back in the regular routine. We figure at this point Mom will be making up these lost snow days until about Independence Day!

For those of you in the “SB” community that hadn’t seen (and are interested in it), there was some news of note in today’s Wall Street Journal. We can't take credit for finding it because a friend informed us it was there... Let's just say we don't frequent the pages of the WSJ. Anyway, the article recants a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding Spina Bifida fetal surgery, you can read it by clicking here.

Not to be lost in the shuffle, Braelyn’s still doing fine. She has been getting a little finicky with her food. Unfortunately for her, that’s becoming one of the few things she doesn’t share with Dad (more on that in a later post).

Great news here in KC… Temperatures in the 50s this weekend… We can’t wait to thaw out!!!

A Super Sunday of Sorts

Well, much like last year, Braelyn and Gwendolyn had a low-key Super Bowl Sunday at home. Unfortunately, this year that had a lot to do with Gwendolyn.

That’s because The Gwenner contracted her second UTI in the last three months. As this can be a typical problem with kiddos who have spina bifida (and it can eventually lead to a daily catheterization routine if it happens too regularly), we’re hoping it is merely a blip on the radar and not her new norm.

Making matters worse, the antibiotic she was prescribed this time around gives her the squirts (and we're talking a Niagara Falls case). Apparently, they try to switch the antibiotic she is prescribed each time because our bodies can gain immunity to them rather quickly if we are on them too routinely (and this certainly isn’t poor Gwendolyn’s first ride on the antibiotic roller coaster if you know what we mean). We were truly aghast when poor Gwen would go from bone dry to nearly bursting at the seams of her diaper in the span of a few seconds. After a pow-wow with the pediatrician, they decided that cutting the dose in half would still clear out the infection while affecting her digestive tract less. So far, that reduction combined with some probiotics has been a positive change.

As has become her calling card, Gwendolyn’s handling things in stride. In fact, she’s become a huge fan of getting folks to interact with her by suddenly playing what we affectionately refer to as the “blinking game.” More often than not, there would be Gwen lying on her changing table in a state of clean up that would totally unravel Mom or Dad if the roles were reversed. And when you’d look at her expecting to see a face full of angst, she'd quickly notice your eye contact, then blink her eyes hard and fast hoping that you’d quickly duplicate the act back in her direction.

Only Gwen can cause that much laughter when she’s the one who should be garnering sympathy!!!

When she wasn’t causing mad dashes to the nursery with a towel tightly swaddled around her lower half, Gwen was often sitting back and reading or dodging some of her sister’s continued zestful affection this weekend.

Speaking of, Brae Bear has gotten better and better on that front. It is interesting to see Braelyn’s reaction to her sister’s cries. She still plops down right next to Gwen and either trys to kiss or hug her. Luckily for Gwen, the combination of less force exhorted by Braelyn and more familiarity that her sister is about to give her some loving has caused less and less residual crying from Gwen.

Also on the topic of Braelyn, the sight above has become a very familiar one of late around the house. Braelyn has really taken to her popcorn popper car… Unfortunately, she just can’t seem to get it moving when she’s facing forward so she’ll often straddle it backwards and get it to move that way.

She’s got ingenuity if nothing else.

Finally, a disclaimer of sorts… It’s come to our attention that in the process of sprucing up the blog these last couple of months, we might have accidentally caused some confusion. By putting the header photo of the girls and a favorite inspiration quote of ours on top of the blog, a lot of people just assumed that it was a post in and of itself. So, more than a few of you have logged on, seen the normal header photo, assumed it was the same old post and not scrolled down. (Truly, we might get behind in giving updates for time-to-time but we PROMISE that we'd never go AWOL for months at a time!)

To help from being too confusing, we’re going to try something different in the short term. For the next week, we’re going to remove the header photo & quote. Hopefully that will give everyone that normally follows the blog an opportunity to read this post… And, when we put the photo & quote back on top of the blog, you’ll know moving forward to just scroll down a wee bit to see if there’s a new post up or not. While far from a rock-solid actuality, our goal is still to post a couple of updates on the twins a week... And we're sure that as they grow, the photo and/or quote will be updated so bear with us. Oh, and if you are one of those that got lost in the shuffle, be sure to scroll down and catch up on Braelyn and Gwendolyn's exploits in 2011!!!

Well folks, until later… Enjoy your week!!!

Some Castellano Frosty Firsts

Mom and Dad took the girls outside for all of five minutse yesterday for their first experience with snow. While the cold temperatures didn't afford Braelyn or Gwendolyn much time with the white powder, the initial results were pretty positive.

Brae Bear seemed the more excited of the two. She quickly began touching it with her index finger fully stretched out and then flashed a big grin. Meanwhile, The Gwenner was trying to figure out another first... Why was she bundled up but not snug in her car seat by now? It's amazing how much humans are creatures of habit. Gwendolyn just knows that when her coat goes on, we're going for a car ride so this just wasn't right in her mind.

Unfortunately, our last "first" of the day was a quick sled ride in the laundry basket... We say unfortunately because that was just on the cusp of the twins being out there long enough for their liking because icy tears soon appeared.

Still, it was a fun time had all-in-all.

Close Your Eyes Grandma, Close Your Eyes!!!

Unfortunately for you, this entry will take a moment to set up, so please bare with us...

Grandma McKee is truly our savior. Whenever something pops up - and with the girls there ALWAYS seems to be something amiss - she's there in a pinch.

However, she'll typically play "Grandma Daycare" with a request that we don't leave her anything terribly messy to feed the girls.

Fast forward to the present... With the deluge of snow we had yesterday, Dad ran to the grocery store to stock up on some goodies so we could all hunker down. While there, he noticed that they now make Beefaroni with whole wheat pasta. When Dad was a tyke, pretty much the entire Chef Boyardee line was a favorite of his. Still, we've made the effort to feed Braelyn and Gwendolyn as healthy as we can. But, Dad felt that surely the addition of whole wheat pasta afforded him opportunity to see if Brae Bear and The Gwenner had inherited some of his taste buds.

All we can say is Grandma close your eyes because you will not like what you are about to see!

Yep, it was a hit... Except when Dad subsequently had to clean off not only the girls and their clothes but their highchairs as well.

Now we understand why Grandma likes to keep it neat!!!

Stay warm out there folks.