Poolside with the Twins

So, we promised some more photos of the girls and their trip to Florida. Of course, any jaunt to the Sunshine State wouldn't be complete without some time in the pool. Luckily, Nana came through and the girls were able to get their splash on in her backyard away from the general population.

Speaking of swimming, we are reminded of a anecdotal story involving Braelyn from the trip that we had to share. We mentioned in the last post that she seemed infatuated with the airplanes themselves while we waited to board our plane (which of course is why we needed to include just one more shot of her looking out the terminal window of our gate). Well, at one stage Braelyn was "stretching her legs" (a.k.a. running shiftily away from where Mom and Dad are so she can test her boundaries). Well, the Southwest terminal in Orlando has a series of mosaic tiles on the floor. For some reason, they really seemed to capture her attention. So, in the middle of her full-out sprint away from Dad, she pauses, drops to the floor, and begins a body motion best described as swimming right on the mosaic tiles. By the time Dad caught up to her, he tried several times to pick her up and put her back on her feet, only to have Braelyn immediately drop to the ground again and begin her 100M freestyle act.

We still aren't sure what was going through her little head, but we now know to try and locate mosaics whenever she's making a break for it!

;)

Okay, as promised here are the photos of Braelyn and Gwendolyn in the special kiddie pool Nana purchased for them (with help from Mom's latest phone gadget, the Retro Camera App)... ENJOY!!!

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

For Easter this year, Braelyn and Gwendolyn decided that they wanted to visit Florida so they could see Nana, Poppa, Uncle Rich, Auntie Shannon and Cousin Ava. We had a splendid time and other than traveling with a pair of… well, 18-month olds, it all worked out just fine.

On Saturday, we loaded up and went to the zoo then on Sunday the girls put on their Easter best. After church, they took to Nana and Poppa’s backyard for a good old fashioned Easter Egg Hunt with Ava. (Mental note for next year, Florida gets much warmer this time of year than Kansas City… Perhaps chocolates aren’t the best “treasures” to put inside the eggs.)

Still, other than the fact that our visit was much too short, the girls really seemed to enjoy their time. Braelyn was very excited to see the airplanes out the window of the airport terminal while Gwen was her typical laid back self for the majority of the trip.

Enjoy these shots and we’ve got a few others that we’ll post later in the week!

Time to Color Some Eggs

It's almost time for Easter. Last weekend, Braelyn & Gwendolyn got into the spirit a little early as they celebrated with Grandma McKee. Luckily, we think the Easter Bunny will be making another special delivery for the twins this weekend too. In fact, we'll be sure to update you as to how the girls enjoyed their very first Easter Egg Hunt!!!

18 Months Already?

As we noted in the last entry, Braelyn and Gwendolyn recently had an 18-month photo session. While it was rather toasty that day and Gwen wasn't in the best of moods, the pictures came out great (no surprise given the subjects... but we digress). The most interesting part was observing Braelyn's genuine empathy for her sister. She knew The Gwenner was not having an easy go of it so she tried everything she could to help comfort her.

That being said, here are some of our favorites... Including a couple of Brae Bear being the best big sister she knows how to be.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!!

All You Need is Love

The girls had their 18-month photos taken last weekend. We'll post some of our favorites early next week but we wanted to share this one in advance. Poor Gwendolyn wasn't having a very good time during the photo shoot. True to form, Braelyn was there to offer her some comfort. We can't say it helped very much... But we suppose it's the thought that counts!

Set Your DVRs

Before we get to the heart of this entry, there's some house keeping for those of you following along at home and charting Braelyn & Gwendolyn's growth. The figures are in from yesterday's 18-month doctors visit. Even though they are within a half-inch of one another height wise (Braelyn @ 30" and Gwendolyn @ 29.5"), Gwen has a little more girth at the moment than her "big" sister does (Braelyn came in at 20 pounds while Gwen was a hair over 26 pounds).

Still, the doctor shared our assessment that Gwen obviously doesn't have nearly as much daily activity as her sister (so she isn't able to burn as many calories in a day). Plus, up until a couple of weeks ago, Gwen had all her fluids pumped into her poor tummy no matter if she wanted them or not. Now with her using a cup, Gwen can better self-regulate her thirst and hunger so we anticipate that things will start to even out.

The other thing that we wanted to share in this entry, for those of you that didn't know and are interested, is that The Paul Reiser Show premiers tonight (4/14) on NBC at 7:30 PM Central Time. The comedy is a fictionalized version of Reiser's life. We bring it up not just because we love us some Paul Reiser - which we do - but because Brock Waidmann, a young actor with spina bifida and agnesis of the corpus collosum, plays Reiser's son on the show. Needless to say, we're pretty excited to see someone with SB getting such a great great opportunity. We recently came across an interview with Brock on WHEELCHAIR and he seems like a very neat kid. If you are interested to read the interview and learn a little more about Brock, click on the WHEELCHAIR link in the preceding sentence.

You can guess what the Castellanos will be watching this evening!!!

Hair Raising!!!

Today is 18-month shot day for Braelyn and Gwendolyn.

How are they already a year-and-a-half old?!?!?!

One thing that’s brought an increased level of excitement with each and every occurrence is their love of bath time.

As you can see, sometimes Mom and Dad have a little fun with the girls’ hair but neither Brae Bear nor The Gwenner mind all that much!

Regardless, we hope that today’s inoculations don’t bring too many tears…

What is Daddy Doing Out There Anyway?

Mother Nature finally gave us a weekend with promise that winter truly is over and done with. Of course, that meant Dad was finally out of excuses when it comes to mowing the lawn (although he did get a slight reprieve on the weed-and-feed application because of some rain that never really transpired). Needless to say, lawn mowing is a pretty foreign concept to Braelyn and Gwendolyn. So, as Dad tamed the back yard, the girls stared in amazement out the back sliding door trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

With the warmer weather, came an excuse for Braelyn to continue her naked play days. Not only did our favorite hat make another appearance, but apparently Brae Bear is a big fan of shopping in her diaper. We suppose it offers comfort but we still aren't sure where she keeps her wallet!

;)

Gwendolyn is getting closer than ever to going from the upright seated position into a crawling scenario. Yesterday, she would get her rump off the ground and nearly have her foot tucked fully underneath her... All that's left is for her to do is realize she needs to start walking her hands in front of her, thereby getting her torso parallel with the ground. The funny part came as Mom and Dad encouraged her on while she "practiced." Gwen would keep getting just to the brink of assimilating into the crawling position and would notice Mom and Dad clapping for her. So, she'd instantaneously revert back to sitting when she'd reach that vital moment so that she too could clap her hands. Soon, it became part of the routine for her to get right on the cusp of transitioning into the crawling position, only to stop and clap.

The moment she finally stops clapping and keeps moving forward won't be too far in the future we predict!

Much of the Same

So, as these latest photos will attest, not a whole lot has changed for the Castellano girls this week.

Braelyn still isn't eating a whole lot and is entranced with her new toy cars. In fact, now she's integrating a demolition derby of sorts throughout her food while in her highchair... At least we found a way for her to show some type of interest in her meals!

;)

As for Gwendolyn, this whole drinking out of a cup thing sure hasn't gotten old for her. She loves tilting her thickened milk high in the air just to be sure she accounts for every last drop.

Yet another trait Gwen shares with her Mom... A love of an ice-cold glass of milk!!!

We can't wait for the weekend... Talk to you all soon.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

We promised an update on Gwendolyn’s new braces. Unfortunately, her initial P.T. session with them got postponed but instead of flaking out, we decided to still show you a little bit of what Gwendolyn can do with them.

Firstly, this is a look at one of the new braces outside of her shoe. Not pictured is the hard plastic "boot" that wraps around her foot and slides on top of the brace's sole.

It’s just amazing to us that something this simple can be so useful.

Needless to say, Gwen seems to thoroughly enjoy them. We took this photo of her in action and you can see that they hug her shins, ending just below the kneecap. So far she seems more stable than she did in the past and to needs to exert less energy to stand. She even seems to not struggle as much when we assist her in taking “steps.”

Braelyn has begun channeling her inner tomboy of late. She has become fixated with toy cars of all types and sizes. At daycare her favorite things to do seem to be reading books in her own unique babble and playing with Matchbox cars. So, Mom purchased her a set to play with this weekend. This isn’t the world’s best photo by any means but we decided to include because not only is it documenting her playing with her new cars but it shows her doing so while wearing a hat that provided quite a lot of humor in the Castellano household over the weekend.

=)

Brae became so attached to her latest treasures that she not only went to bed with one of her new cars last night but upon awaking this morning was heard repeatedly playing with it instead of whining to get out of her crib for us to collect her.

The girls did take advantage of the nice weekend weather, which has quickly dissipated might we add, at the playground this weekend. Gwen wore her new braces out and really seemed to have a great time. She gravitated to a little "spring" car on one corner of the playground. It afforded her the opportunity to sit somewhat enclosed as she held onto the handle and kept it bouncing back and forth.

Braelyn on the other hand continued to channel her inner tomboy as she took immense pleasure in getting dirty. Soon after we arrived, she began digging up the landscaping rocks with a sand shovel and shrilled with excitement as she then dumped them back into the ground.

Ah, the simple pleasures of childhood!!!