Birthday Blowouts

Well, we had quite a busy birthday weekend. First the girls (who officially turn two today) had their party. Then, the following day, it was Mom's turn to enjoy her birthday.

With that said, here is a heaping helping of birthday photos from their sock monkey themed party.

A special thanks to Aunt Susan for being our photographer for the day and to Mom for weeding through all those great options to pick out these gems for the blog... Enjoy!

Braelyn & Mom enjoy a monkey cupcake (appropriately enough)


Gwendolyn greets her guests in style


Mom unveils the sock monkey cake she nearly lost an appendage decorating (good news, the blood flow has nearly returned to her arm after all that time icing the cake). On a side note, you can tell that Gwendolyn is already on a sugar high by the chocolate icing from her monkey cupcake plastered all over her face.

Mom's cute sock monkey theme extended thorough out the party


Braelyn monkeying around on the playground


Dad and Gwendolyn look at one of her new gifts


This sequence of slide photos isn't one of poor Gwenner's finest moments...


Gwendolyn down, Gwendolyn down... Literally! However, we'll chalk this one up to some poor slide spotting technique by Mom!


Whew... At least Gwendolyn made it safe and sound at the bottom


Braelyn's birthday smiles


Gwendolyn gets in the act as well


All hail princess Braelyn and her mother the queen


Get out of our way... We're opening gifts

The whole family says "cheese"

Everybody Smile

We know, we know... Continuing to plaster the blog with shots of the girls in nothing but their diapers leads you all to believe that we are some sort of "clothing optional" family.

That's obviously not the case (and our neighbors are quite thankful for that!). However, maybe we should consider altering that designation because we tend to get the cutest shots of the girls when they are in some sort of undress.

That photo leading off this entry is a good case in point. What you can't tell other than the fact that her head is turned away from the camera, is that Gwendolyn has put together cameras and saying "cheese." So, little Gwendolyn is in the conclusion of her full-head-nod "cheese" when Mom snapped this shot. (That girl can hold a "cheese" like no ones business!)

For her part, Braelyn isn't about to miss out on a photo opportunity either... So she's sure to be front-and-center for this one. It must have been between cooking in her play kitchen, which now preoccupies the majority of her play time.

Also, we mentioned Gwendolyn's good test results on Friday. Mom was able to snap this photo above of the Gwenner during the test. Only our daughter would have a big smile stretched across her face as fluids are forcibly propelled into her bladder.

Yep, there's only one Gwendolyn Marie!!!

Getting Back on Track With Good News

Well how about that... After what seems like an eternity of once-a-week blog entries, Dad has finally found the time for a two-post week.

Although he must confess, it's because Gwendolyn had some good news to relay today. In advance of her clinic appointment next month, she had to have a visit to the kidney center. Continuing her streak of positive news, Gwendolyn did quite well. According to Mom, the Gwenner was filling her bladder to near capacity in the 90-100 percent range while also releasing fluids from her bladder with excellent pressure. A urinalysis showed that she's also still free and clear of any UTIs.

So, hopefully she will continue to delay the need to be cathed... We keep being told that its only a matter of time (which we are sure it will be) but regardless it's just one less thing Gwen has to deal with in the present.

Braelyn is still doing fine herself... As you can see, she's still a wee bit groggy in the mornings... But she's just fine after a few moments on the couch snuggling up with a blanket and some cartoons.

We hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Mr. Mom, Double-Jointed Dolls & Baby Babble

The last couple of days, Mom hasn't quite felt her normal spunky self. As a result, Dad was called into full-service daughter watching duty.

That in and of itself is a scary proposition. Luckily, Mom was still able to fulfill her duties as a hairstylist for the girls... otherwise Braelyn and Gwendolyn would have truly been sunk.

However, we are happy to report that Mom's back at work this morning and Dad's back to filling his normal role of gorging himself and inexplicably falling asleep on the sofa.

As for the girls, Braelyn has taken to a new set of baby doll items Mom recently picked up at a consignment sale. She loves moving between stroller, swing and pack-and-play with her dolls. The funniest might be when she follows our family routine of going to bed. She has her doll say its prayers first but instead of folding its hands in front, she jets them behind the doll and claps its hands backwards. We are not positive but we think that doll's got to be double-jointed to pull off a prayer maneuver like that.

Gwendolyn continues to test boundaries. She is getting better and better at side stepping. She even has momentarily taken her arms off the sofa and stood for a few seconds unaided all by herself. Her physical therapist said that most of her leg muscles have started to develop except for the hamstrings. Hopefully, they won't be far behind.

Gwendolyn has also got a little better at opening up to strangers but that's kind of like saying you really enjoy the winter except for the cold, ice and snow. To that end, her new speech therapist had to sneak in through the garage and stand out of view in the dining room yesterday just to hear that Gwendolyn does in fact make audible noises when she's in her normal environment.

In fact, we think Gwen's advancing vocabulary is another prime example of her sister unintentionally pushing her to get better. Lately, Gwendolyn's new words are mainstays that her sister has frequently been using. Of course they both sometimes bust into a diatribe that sounds like a long-ago forgotten European language so what to we really know? As long as they know what one another is saying, I guess we are good to go!

Monkeying Around

Wow, we can't believe that Labor Day is already come and gone. For some reason time seems to be moving quicker and quicker. Maybe that's because we are just trying to keep up with Braelyn and Gwendolyn?!?!?!

We took full advantage of the great weather this past weekend for some outdoor activities. Mom had purchased tickets for her and Dad to watch the Jayhawks opener as a birthday gift. Outside of a little rain to start things off, it was a glorious time... Kansas even won! (which is saying something unfortunately)

Yesterday, the girls had some time outside in their Cosy Coupes. Now that we have two coupes, you would think that the fighting over these cars has subsided, which it has to a certain extent. However, Braelyn still took the opportunity on a few occasions to get out of her car, open the door to Gwendolyn's and ask her to get "up, please."

However, the funniest interaction came between the Gwenner and Mom when it was time to head back inside. Each time, Mom would open the door to her car and tell Gwen it was time to go inside but Gwen's response was to merely close to car's door and laugh... That is until Gwen was forcibly taken from her coupe, which you can imagine wasn't meet with much delight.

We also got the girls ready for their birthday by trying out some new hats that Mom found for them. If you couldn't tell, their second birthday party will have a monkey theme... How fitting is that? (And how are we already preparing for a second birthday... Talk about time flying!!!)

On the health front, Gwendolyn had an in-home assessment by an O.T. over the weekend. In true form, Gwen exhibited her "stranger, danger" approach. However, she is getting better. In the past, when a new individual came to the house she would NEVER make eye contact... Kind of a "If I can't see you, You can't see me" approach. This time, while she was still skittish, she was interacting with the help of Mom's inclusion.

The best news is that it seems Gwen won't be requiring her regular multi-week visits from O.T. as she did before when she wasn't able to take fluids by moth. Now that she's gained more and more strength, she's doing better and better with her swallowing. So, moving forward she's just going to get a visit once a month as she's nearly caught up to the development thresholds that she should be at in her development.

So we guess that's you update on the Castellanos for now... Talk to you all soon!!!